Bishop Sycamore high school (ESPN)

Other Leagues and Sports
1

ESPN did not do the due diligence thing. Discuss.

2

I know that IMG academy in Tampa is the premier high school in the country if you are a football player. If you are an outstanding Canadian high schooler especially at QB, the scouts will advise you to apply to IMG if you want to be a pro.
Michael O'Connor is an IMG grad. Cam Newton, Drew Brees, Russell Wilson all IMG grads

3

Only for the privileged perhaps

It's in Bradenton and it's 85,000 a year for tuition

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4

…it’s not IMG that’s the problem, they’re well-known…the story’s about how the other team got selected…

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5

Definitely material that will be discussed in various collegiate Sports Management programs across the country.

6

The IMG Academy is where the Bombers and a number of other CFL teams held their Mini-camps in 2019

7

That's just........SAD

Hope them high schoolers taught them something :joy:

8

It's absolutely ridiculous that this crap is on ESPN when some more of the CFL games are not but for on ESPN+.

And it's also crap that ESPN is involved in profiting from minors like this, so if they were duped well now there is no honour amongst such thieves now is there?

To hell with them all.

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9

Yes but apparently IMG had already dealt with Bishop Syc's antics over the past couple of years so they KNEW about it. They let it happen, maybe so that they could smoke some palooka school on TV?

Appropriate that Bishop Sycamore's initials are ... :wink:

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10

…I didn’t read that angle in the articles I saw, makes sense though that you’d want to have an idea who you’re playing against…

11

Situation 1

School plays an opponent that is not an ESPN game with the game played locally.

Situation 2

School plays an opponent with the game on ESPN -- players fly to the neutral site destination. Probably experiencing flying for the first time to a different state and ESPN picks up the tab. Some sightseeing too. Mom/dad record the game on video as a keepsake.

Situation 2 is better with the players reaping some benefit at someone else's cost. Not sure how that is "profiting from minors (at the minors' expense)". The minors are better off.

12

But I watched the podcast video in one of the links with someone who actually called around and dug up all the info. Apparently the guy who runs/coaches Bishop Sycamore ran a different team a couple of years back the same way. That one got shut down when the church that he had claimed had backed him actually weren't backing him. So he started Bish and he had scheduled a game with IMG last year and then after they agreed he started jerking IMG around over expenses, so IMG KNEW the shadiness of the Bish program. Very very interesting story. :wink: I recommend just for the entertainment value alone.

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13

Unpaid minors are better off now you claim?

Do you realize that some at IMG are out of high school too? It's allowed to have one-year more before playing big-time college ball.

  1. Advertisers
  2. That "travel" fund is managed by just who now?
  3. Ditto the "food and lodging" fund
  4. Any other perks, as in "sponsorship," flowing from ESPN and various entities to coaches and a few parents not disclosed publicly.

I highly recommend a documentary like "Sole Man" for how a whole lot of amatuer sports, primarily football and basketball, have worked for decades now. Or perhaps "Pony Express" because some of what got SMU in hot water still goes on just fine.

You cannot be so naive as expressed so as to believe this is akin to some charity endeavour by ESPN and many others, with the minors of the players used as pawns.

At least if played at the local level, the money stays in the community now.

Now if you have some skin in this game yourself, maybe disclose that now, but otherwise don't overlook now that plenty, who are not the minor players or recently over 18-years old players, sure do have skin in the game with the players receiving whatever scraps are left and the surrounding community less (except for the most highly recruited, who are receiving all kinds of gifts on the side).

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14

I have no doubt some ESPN hands were in this till too. This was an inside job.

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15

Bishop Sycamore is the butt of jokes on Twitter Football.