Apparent Fake School Bishop Sycamore Got On IMG Academy Schedule

BRADENTON, FL — IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, is “the world’s most prestigious sports, performance and educational institution,” according to its website.

“With our world-renowned boarding school and noted sports camps, IMG continues to set the standard for total academic, athletic and personal development in youth student-athletes.”

The school boasts a number of prominent current and former NFL players as alumni, including a record seven former players who were selected in the NFL Draft earlier this year.

So it was no surprise that ESPN wanted to feature the football powerhouse, and its multiple confirmed NCAA Division I recruits, in a game this season.

But the school selected to face IMG on national television Sunday afternoon is anything but a football powerhouse. And apparently it may be anything but an actual high school.

Bishop Sycamore took the field against IMG in Canton, Ohio, on Sunday before getting soundly defeated, 58-0. Reports surfaced quickly that not only had Bishop Sycamore apparently lied about the number of Division I recruits they had, they were not even listed as an educational institution by the Ohio Department of Education. There’s no charter school registered in Ohio under the name Bishop Sycamore.

The school’s address listed on the MaxPreps website that tracks high school sports teams across the country matches a building on the campus of Franklin University in Columbus, Ohio, with a separate address previously posted on the Bishop Sycamore website as a P.O. box.

“It seems we can’t find what you’re looking for,” was the only thing posted on the website Tuesday afternoon. “Perhaps searching can help.”

Related On Patch: Bishop Sycamore Will Be Investigated By Ohio Officials

A day earlier, the Bishop Sycamore website looked much more like a football blog than something connected to an educational institution. The tab under "schedule" was left blank, although other news reports have confirmed the football team has played a few games over the past few years.

Further investigations by various news outlets later revealed the Bishop Sycamore head coach had an active warrant for his arrest during the national broadcast, the team had played a game in Pennsylvania just two days before the IMG contest, and many of the players are junior college dropouts who are years past high school age.

So how did an established football power like IMG Academy find itself with such an unusual entity on its schedule that features a number of games against some of the nation’s best football schools?

IMG Academy did not immediately respond to a Patch request for comment on Tuesday. It didn’t address their schedule vetting process, nor if anyone affiliated with the Bradenton-based boarding school had ever heard of their Ohio opponent.

Despite the national attention surrounding a win over a less than organized team, IMG had not, as of 5 p.m. Monday, deleted a tweet from Sunday celebrating the shutout victory.

Final from Canton, OH️#National | #Brotherhood pic.twitter.com/9IDV0o818z
— IMG Academy Football (@IMGAFootball) August 29, 2021

Despite the little evidence of such a school’s existence, Bishop Sycamore founder Andre Peterson has denied that his entity finding its way on ESPN was a scam.

"There’s nothing that I’ve gotten out of this that would constitute it as a scam because I’m not gaining anything financially from what we’re doing," Peterson told USA Today, insisting a number of students depend on Bishop Sycamore’s services.

"We have to make sure that website also includes the academic part of it. There’s things that you learn," he said. “We have to make it an actual school website.”

Bishop Sycamore was founded in 2019, Peterson said. Its actual location is private to protect students who were harassed at their former location, the founder also told USA Today. He said the school rents a space in a building in Columbus’ Easton neighborhood.

Last year, a “Bishop Sycamore” was listed by the department of education as a non-chartered, non-tax supported school, the Columbus Dispatch reported. It fit under a category of schools that “because of truly held religious beliefs, choose not to be chartered by the State board of education.”

ESPN was told Bishop Sycamore is an online charter school, according to multiple reports.

With the self-proclaimed “worldwide leader in sports” taking the brunt of the ridicule over such a mishap (it has apologized and taken some responsibility), how IMG found itself involved in such a puzzling saga has been less talked-about.

“You should be embarrassed ever scheduling that game,” one Twitter comment stated.

IMG’s national schedule does include games against mostly out of state teams. It will be in Ohio again this weekend to take on La Salle High School in Cincinnati, a school that’s well known and accounted for.

But the Bishop Sycamore game was the only one scheduled to air on ESPN, as its infamy could take some time for IMG to live down.