A football team in Ohio that was beaten by the Class AA Sto-Rox Vikings on Friday was on ESPN Sunday, playing powerhouse IMG Academy out of Florida, part of the network's Geico High School Football Kickoff.
How did it happen? According to ESPN, the Bishop Sycamore Centurions told the sports giants they have D1 prospects of their own, a statement that turned out to be false.
IMG dominated Bishop Sycamore (a football program that started in just the past couple years) 58-0, two days after losing to Sto-Rox 19-7 in the Week Zero Western Pa. Vs Everyone event at the Wolvarena in Turtle Creek.
Bishop Sycamore even reportedly went as far as naming players in a press release that are not even enrolled at the online academy.
Commentator on the national broadcast also pointed out the health and safety for the Bishop Sycamore players. One being the incredible mismatch between the teams with the possibility of injury, the other is Bishop Sycamore playing two games in a 48-hour period.
A marketing company that scheduled the game said in a release they didn’t know the Centurions had played a game on Friday and if they were aware of that, would have canceled the game.
Many people took to Twitter to criticize both Bishop Sycamore and ESPN.
But in a statement retweeted by Bishop Syamore’s football page, The Centurions were the only team in Ohio to “step up” and play the Florida powerhouse.
Bishop Sycamore went 0-6 last season, that includes a 56-6 loss to IMG.
It’s hard to tell who is ultimately to blame here, but it appears many people should be shouldering the blame, ESPN for not looking deeper into Bishop Sycamore’s claims and the school for allowing its players to play two games in 48-hours.
But you also have to give a little bit of credit to a program in early existence, making its way onto national television.
Bishop Sycamore was scheduled to play Mainland High school out of Daytona Beach, FL in 2019 as part of the Freedom Bowl in Georgia, but that game was canceled after a “breach of contract” by Bishop Sycamore.
The program failed to provide a roster ahead of the deadline and did not book hotel accommodations on time.