# Ohio school was a scam to help football players **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [December 19, 2021, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305 "2021-12-19T06:02:10Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2021, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/1 "2021-12-19T06:02:10Z")
🤨 > **[School scrutinized after ESPN blowout is 'scam,' Ohio finds](https://apnews.com/article/college-football-sports-entertainment-oddities-football-69e888ec3b6ef16c34a50f920cde43e2)** > > The Ohio Department of Education says a school whose legitimacy was scrutinized after its supposedly top-tier football team got clobbered in an ESPN-televised game didn’t live up to its billing educationally either, and turned out to be “a scam.” > 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 ODE report. 😱 Are you fucking kidding me? Some people have seriously fuktup priorities. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2021, 6:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/2 "2021-12-19T06:07:26Z")
It’s not the first one either. The [same thing](https://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/bexley-news/2018/08/06/out-thin-air-cof-academy/985239007/) happened a few years ago. Edit: Ah, it was [the same people](https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/highschool/2021/09/02/bishop-sycamore-football-another-suspicious-high-school-christians-of-faith/5670371001/), they just changed the name of their “school” after they got caught. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2021, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/3 "2021-12-19T06:20:17Z")
Wow! Thanks; this _is_ a helluva story. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2021, 6:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/4 "2021-12-19T06:34:12Z")
Wait, ESPN airs high school football games? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2021, 6:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/5 "2021-12-19T06:36:28Z")
I’ve heard that a lot of Texas high schools are basically football teams that happen to have classrooms. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2021, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/6 "2021-12-19T06:48:45Z")
They likely got the idea from Japan’s non-stop coverage of that country’s completely screwed up high school baseball championships. ---
**Author:** ![Tabco](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tabco/32/7644_2.png) [@Tabco](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tabco)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2021, 8:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/7 "2021-12-19T08:33:54Z")
Here’s a highlight reel of the game in question where Bishop Sycamore lost 0-58, with the ESPN play calls. At one point the announcers admit they couldn’t verify that the school had the division 1 prospects they claimed they did. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/tCH1sD0l8D0/maxresdefault.jpg "when a fake high school plays against IMG Academy...") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCH1sD0l8D0) ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/8 "2021-12-20T03:14:28Z")
> 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 ODE report. How does getting your ass kicked on television help you get in to college? ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/9 "2021-12-20T03:45:48Z")
I am somewhat confused by this story. A fake school existed only as a vehicle for playing high school football. And it was caught because it was so crap at high school football? ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/10 "2021-12-20T03:50:03Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > A fake school existed only as a vehicle for playing high school football. A fake school existed only because some scammers took money from parents, telling them that their failing kids could legally play high school football without actually going to school, and they convinced the parents by lying about the supposed skills their failed kids had. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/11 "2021-12-20T03:53:09Z")
Got it, thanks. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/12 "2021-12-20T06:52:22Z")
It’s lucky that they were faking their skills in a non-contact sport. It seemed that they fell over more than they were tackled. And they didn’t tackle anyone. ---
**Author:** ![Folacin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folacin/32/3195_2.png) [@Folacin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folacin)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/13 "2021-12-20T14:37:23Z")
I can see the parents getting suckered (they all believe that little Johnny is a 5-star prospect), but how did they get ESPN to air the game (and/or get IMG Academy to agree to play them)? I realize rating high school programs is even more of a mess then ranking college ones, but ESPN claims to be good at this sports thing. ---
**Author:** ![Great\_Antibob](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47c2d/32.png) [@Great\_Antibob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Great_Antibob)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/14 "2021-12-20T14:45:27Z")
It was just a mess of red flags all over the place. There was the game itself, which wasn’t, as billed, a game between 2 powerhouse teams. They tried to use bad checks at the hotel they stayed at. And then it turned out the team had just played a game 2 days earlier (!) against a different team. Every time anybody dug just a couple inches deeper, the worse it got. Terrible all around. As for ESPN, they’ve cut so much staff that it’s not a shock they don’t dig into high school teams. And, to be fair, both teams were part of leagues that, in theory, should have flagged this sort of thing. Of course, another one of those red flags was that Bishop Sycamore, despite being “located” in Canton, wasn’t a member of any Ohio high school leagues but some off brand league of Texas christian schools who, as it turned out, let pretty much anybody in if they had a check and a pulse (and maybe not even the pulse). ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/15 "2021-12-20T19:07:46Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Wait, ESPN airs high school football games? ESPN has been covering some high school football for nearly 20 years. Cite: > **[Sports Crazy](https://books.google.com/books?id=dSeNDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT211&lpg=PT211&dq=espn%2B%22high%2Bschool%2Bfootball%22%2B2000&source=bl&ots=NQDtPtR-24&sig=ACfU3U2SIluetXL_SLM75EL4TrkvxE2C9w&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjYnuueifP0AhXEhHIEHSbjCRYQ6AF6BAgCEAM#v=onepage&q=espn%20%22high%20school%20football%22%202000&f=false)** > > Sports Crazy: How Sports Are Sabotaging American Schools exposes the excesses of middle and high school sports and the detrimental effects our sports obsession has on American education. Institutions are increasingly emulating college and... ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/16 "2021-12-20T19:13:01Z")
I was Hawaii a couple of weeks ago. They were broadcasting high school games. (playoffs and title games) The production quality rivalled anything I have ever seen on CBS or NBC college games ---
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/17 "2021-12-20T19:49:48Z")
> [@Typo\_Negative](#): > > I was Hawaii a couple of weeks ago. But you got better? 🙃 ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/18 "2021-12-20T20:10:40Z")
Bigger. I am now California. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2021, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ohio-school-was-a-scam-to-help-football-players/956305/19 "2021-12-20T20:32:36Z")
If you intend getting bigger I suggest you skip right past Texas and got directly to Alaska-sized.