IMG Academy in Florida, one of the largest athlete factory high schools in the country had their first game of the year on Sunday, August 29th broadcasted live on ESPN. IMG Academy is one of the highest ranked football programs in the nation; They are loaded with division 1 talent. Their opposition, however, was not.

They played against a team named Bishop Sycamore. There is a lack of information about the team, the school, the players, and their history as a program in general. The team was reportedly just as good as IMG Academy, with “many” division 1 athletes on the roster. However, you can’t find a roster online of the team or any information whatsoever.

When the game was broadcasted live on ESPN, there was still no team roster given and the announcers were clueless about the players on the field. That didn’t seem to matter however, because they knew IMG Academy’s roster. That’s all they needed. The final score of the game was 58-0 IMG Academy.

In the following days after the game, more and more information came out regarding both Bishop Sycamore as a school and a football program. It turns out that Bishop Sycamore is an online charter school based in Columbus, Ohio. Information came out that there are several players over the age of 20 and not one of them is a division 1 recruit like the team said.

However, once players started to speak out, the narrative started to shift. Hearing information and stories from players rather than the media seemed to make this story much deeper than just a fake football team. This information was much harder to find than the information previously stated.

Some players have come out to say that despite all of the controversy following their team, they stand with each other 100%. A lot of players have gotten upset with the media because they don’t know the full story, there is a lot more behind it than seems. Players have slept on floors and stolen from grocery stores in order to eat. Their ex head coach wrote multiple fraudulent checks to pay for hotel rooms for the team as well.

The common factor between all of the narratives is that the people running the organization have done terrible things. Players stand as a team and as a family; including their ex head coach. These people stand together as a team, against the organization.

I give these players so much credit for doing this, because it’s not easy. However, I think the media gives these players a bad reputation like they are all criminals and scums who tried to fake their way into a high level football game. In reality, these are some football players who were promised a chance to play at a high level and sacrificed so much in order to do so.