An alleged fake high school called Bishop Sycamore has reportedly duped ESPN into airing their football game on national television.
Bishop Sycamore lost 58-0 to IMG Academy in an exhibition game aired this week and suspicions about the validity of the school's existence were first raised by FootballScoop, per Fox Sports.
ESPN has aired high school games because many of the players featured go onto greater things, with some eventually playing for the NFL and the CFL.
Top schools are typically featured on the channel, including IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida, which the allegedly Ohio-based Bishop Sycamore competed against.
According to FootballScoop's initial report, Bishop Sycamore may be "online-only", but not much else is known about the school, which has an empty 'About Us' page on its website that hasn't been updated since May.
The Ringer's Kevin Clark pointed out that the school's name did not make sense on Twitter, writing: "This is a completely wild story and it's worth noting that there appears to be no human named Sycamore who was a bishop, which is, yanno [sic], how these schools are usually named."
As the game took place, ESPN commentators began to question whether a top-level college football team was playing and began to reveal the evidence that suggested the team was not what it appeared to be.
"Bishop Sycamore told us they had a number of Division I prospects on their roster," commentator Anish Shroff said on the broadcast.
"To be frank, a lot of that we could not verify. They did not show up in our database, they did not show up in the databases of other recruiting services.
"So, okay, that's what you're telling us, fine, that's how we take it in. From what we've seen so far, this is not a fair fight, and there's got to be a point where you're worried about health and safety."
Even if the team was legitimate, Fox Sports points out that it should have never played on national television because of its quality.
According to high school football site MaxPreps, the team's first season was just last year, where they went 0-6.
Rivals also reports that none of the top 50 prospects in the class of 2022 or 2023 in Ohio attend Bishop Sycamore.