Bishop Sycamore High School is back under the bright lights, but not in the football sense.
After being crushed in a game televised on ESPN, the “school” made headlines in Ohio. The football game severely tested the credibility of the network and high school sports after the egregious score of 58-0.
Scam School
Now, according to an investigation by the Ohio Department of Education, Bishop Sycamore High School is officially considered “a scam.”
“Ohio families should be able to count on the fact that our schools educate students and don’t exist in name only as a vehicle to play high school sports,” said Republican Gov. Mike DeWine in a statement on Friday.
According to reports, Gov. DeWine has asked the attorney general and other officials to determine whether Bishop Sycamore broke any laws. In addition, DeWine is working to enact changes with state education officials and lawmakers.
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No Education. No School.
According to reports, the state found no evidence that Bishop Sycamore enrolled multiple students this year.
In August, when Bishop Sycamore took a massive 58-0 loss to high school football powerhouse IMG Academy, an investigation was active. The finding is the organization didn’t meet minimum academic offerings and student safety standards.
In a call with a department official last month, Bishop Sycamore administrator Andre Peterson characterized his program as a way to get more exposure for football players who were having trouble getting into colleges, according to the Ohio Department of Education report.
Urban should go coach high school ball. Bishop Sycamore is based in Columbus, Ohio. Perfect fit if we're being honest.
— Steve Rosenberg (@SteveRosenberg) December 16, 2021
Illigetimatacy
However, Bishop Sycamore’s only reported one enrolled student with a physical address listed in a residential neighborhood.
When operational, classes were conducted online, and its current status, according to reports, is a “non-chartered, tax-supported” school. However, what is unclear is whether the proper paperwork has been recorded to maintain that status.
Then the athlete roster included postgraduate players that are collegiate ages as old as 19 or 20. Digging a little deeper has raised suspicions some of them might have played in junior college games.
In their defense, it's extremely hard to find info like this about high schools. It's hard even in college to find info for eligibility reqs sometimes. Stuff like this flies under the radar even in traditional sports (Bishop Sycamore)
— CCL Jacen (@sonofpaint) December 10, 2021
Unconventional Pipeline
In short, Bishop Sycamore was “a way for students to play football against high school teams and potentially increase students’ prospects of playing football at the collegiate level.”
“The cost of this dream for those students wasn’t just the tuition charged to attend the school,” the department said in its report. “The price was the education the students were entitled to receive.”
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Bishop Sycamore head coach Roy Johnson was part of a federal fraud investigation. The local African Methodist Episcopal Church has denied involvement with his previous football-centric school.
Not Approved
The Ohio Department of Education did note that schools like Sycamore do not require their approval and that body lacks the power under state law to sanction Bishop Sycamore.
However, recommended changes from the Ohio Department of Education include amending various state laws.
The coach recently went on a Twitter rant to justify the highly unconventional methods.
“We rent space a few days a week to go over our classroom stuff class, work stuff,” the coach said. “That’s in the eastern area, so you can kind of get us there in a few days a week that we have school. Remember, we’re not a traditional school so we don’t have our young men sitting in school from 7 a.m.”
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