Ohio prep football team’s 58-0 loss spurs state investigation

After a shellacking in a game televised on ESPN revealed an Ohio prep football team wasn’t the top-tier talent it purported to be, the legitimacy of the school itself is now in question.

As observers wondered how Bishop Sycamore ended up in the game in the first place, Gov. Mike Dewine announced Tuesday he’d asked the Ohio Department of Education to investigate whether the school complies with minimum standards and provides “the educational opportunities Ohio students deserve.”

Bishop Sycamore’s 58-0 loss to powerhouse IMG Academy from Bradenton, Florida, on Sunday in Canton raised concerns not only about player safety but about the Ohio school’s operations, Dewine said in a written statement.

In a required report filed with the state last year, Bishop Sycamore reported having just three enrolled students learning in a blended model of “online and traditional learning,” and its address was listed as a library at a university in downtown Columbus that now says it didn’t actually end up renting space to the school, The Columbus Dispatch reported.

As a “non-charter, non-taxsupported school,” state rules could allow Bishop Sycamore to bypass normal systems of operation “because of truly held religious beliefs,” but it hasn’t reported its enrollment to the local public district as the state requires for such schools, and it hasn’t filed a report with the Education Department for this year, the Dispatch reported.

The game had been among matchups scheduled by Paragon Marketing Group for ESPN, which has told reporters it regrets what happened.