“High School” team lies to play on ESPN

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UpAndUnder43 said:
Again, IMG did nothing wrong. They played a game that was scheduled for them. It isn't like their coach decided to play a bunch of random kids from the park. If a team plays against Eden Prairie and uses an illegal player and he hurts an EP kid, do you blame EP? I don't. Same applies here.

IMG struggles to get games. No one wants to play them. They got offered a game and dominated. Sounds like the game was clean but a blowout.
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You are certainly entitled to your opinion and it doesn't look like we are going to agree. I don't think they are as responsible as ESPN or its agent. They are certainly less responsible that the Bishop Sycamore people. And no, they didn't play against a bunch of random kids from the park. But they did play against a bunch of random college-aged guys. The EP thing is a poor analogy. When they play Rosemount or Blaine they know that they are playing against another MSHSL team. This wasn't "an illegal player," it was a roster full of them.

You seem to be focused on the fact that they won the game and nothing catastrophic happened. Great, I am glad that everyone dodged that bullet. But it could have been worse. What if they lost to the college-aged guys and suffered a bunch of injuries? What if they showed up and physically dominated the other team, injured some of their players and then it turns out they were a middle school team? Same thoughts? You are free to feel they have no obligation to know who they are putting their team on the field to play against, but had something bad happened, I don't think the fact that it's hard for them to find opponents or that ESPN's promotion company set it up would be viewed by most as an absolute defense.
 

2nd Degree Gopher said:
You are certainly entitled to your opinion and it doesn't look like we are going to agree. I don't think they are as responsible as ESPN or its agent. They are certainly less responsible that the Bishop Sycamore people. And no, they didn't play against a bunch of random kids from the park. But they did play against a bunch of random college-aged guys. The EP thing is a poor analogy. When they play Rosemount or Blaine they know that they are playing against another MSHSL team. This wasn't "an illegal player," it was a roster full of them.

You seem to be focused on the fact that they won the game and nothing catastrophic happened. Great, I am glad that everyone dodged that bullet. But it could have been worse. What if they lost to the college-aged guys and suffered a bunch of injuries? What if they showed up and physically dominated the other team, injured some of their players and then it turns out they were a middle school team? Same thoughts? You are free to feel they have no obligation to know who they are putting their team on the field to play against, but had something bad happened, I don't think the fact that it's hard for them to find opponents or that ESPN's promotion company set it up would be viewed by most as an absolute defense.
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No one knows for sure if it was 1 or many players from bishop sycamore. There aren’t any concrete details. Lots of rumors. Prove to me it was a team full of illegal players and I’ll agree with you.
 


UpAndUnder43 said:
No one knows for sure if it was 1 or many players from bishop sycamore. There aren’t any concrete details. Lots of rumors. Prove to me it was a team full of illegal players and I’ll agree with you.
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That’s a very MplsGopher-esque response.
 

State of Football said:
Sounds like Gentry Academy here in Minnesota. Who are the parents that send their kids to these fake schools.
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It's not really like Gentry Academy. The parents who send their kids to Gentry Academy are likely to be quite different than the parents who send their kids to Bishop Sycamore. Gentry is probably closer to like an IMG (but it's not a boarding school).
 


Bob_Loblaw said:
It's not really like Gentry Academy. The parents who send their kids to Gentry Academy are likely to be quite different than the parents who send their kids to Bishop Sycamore. Gentry is probably closer to like an IMG (but it's not a boarding school).
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Then you don’t know Gentry or IMG.
 

2nd Degree Gopher said:
You are certainly entitled to your opinion and it doesn't look like we are going to agree. I don't think they are as responsible as ESPN or its agent. They are certainly less responsible that the Bishop Sycamore people. And no, they didn't play against a bunch of random kids from the park. But they did play against a bunch of random college-aged guys. The EP thing is a poor analogy. When they play Rosemount or Blaine they know that they are playing against another MSHSL team. This wasn't "an illegal player," it was a roster full of them.

You seem to be focused on the fact that they won the game and nothing catastrophic happened. Great, I am glad that everyone dodged that bullet. But it could have been worse. What if they lost to the college-aged guys and suffered a bunch of injuries? What if they showed up and physically dominated the other team, injured some of their players and then it turns out they were a middle school team? Same thoughts? You are free to feel they have no obligation to know who they are putting their team on the field to play against, but had something bad happened, I don't think the fact that it's hard for them to find opponents or that ESPN's promotion company set it up would be viewed by most as an absolute defense.
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I mean, someone from IMG probably should have done some homework, but this is kind of a bizarre take. It's not like the left their scheduling up to some shady entity in the shadows. They let ESPN find them an opponent for the Hall of Fame game.

As far as being injured by Bishop Sycamore? Seriously? Do you really think there was even a remote possibility that this would happen? You think IMG saw the film from Bishop Sycamore and was worried about them being so physically dominant that they would injure the IMG players? IMG also has their own prep school team (HS graduates) that they practice against all the time, I'd imagine those 18/19 year old kids are a bit more physically capable than Bishop Sycamore.

If anything, IMG wasted their time playing against a bad opponent. They went into a completely vanilla offense and it was essentially a scrimmage for them. The worst case scenario really played out. Could someone have been injured? Sure. That can happen in any game.
 

State of Football said:
Then you don’t know Gentry or IMG.
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I know Gentry has a building, it holds classes, it's accredited, it's in the MSHL, it has teachers, it has a real roster and it also has division 1 athletes.

I thought the ENTIRE controversy of Bishop Sycamore was that it had none of those things. . .
 

matt said:
That’s a very MplsGopher-esque response.
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Woof. I should quit now. That hurts more than my parents telling me I’m definitely not the favorite. But…what I said is true. There are some random allegations about this team. But that’s it.
 



UpAndUnder43 said:
No one knows for sure if it was 1 or many players from bishop sycamore. There aren’t any concrete details. Lots of rumors. Prove to me it was a team full of illegal players and I’ll agree with you.
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I am just going by the reports that they had players over 18 and some of them had played in juco games. I am not going to be able to "prove" something to you that the folks at ESPN, Paragon and IMG never inquired about. I think that IMG should have asked, you don't. That's really the end of it.
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I mean, someone from IMG probably should have done some homework, but this is kind of a bizarre take.
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That was my initial point, they should have done some homework on why they were being set up to play a team they throttled last year, but was now being promoted to play them in a nationally televised game and supposedly had several D-I players on the roster. My further discussion was with someone who disagreed that they had any duty at all to do anything but show up and play.

Bob_Loblaw said:
As far as being injured by Bishop Sycamore? Seriously? Do you really think there was even a remote possibility that this would happen? You think IMG saw the film from Bishop Sycamore and was worried about them being so physically dominant that they would injure the IMG players? IMG also has their own prep school team (HS graduates) that they practice against all the time, I'd imagine those 18/19 year old kids are a bit more physically capable than Bishop Sycamore.
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You are assuming that they saw any game film, if that's been reported, I missed it. Maybe my hypotheticals went too far for you, but the overall point was that IMG has some obligation to know who they are putting their players on the field against. If they reviewed game film from earlier this year and said, "yep, these are the same guys we played last year." Fine. But, that's not what I have seen reported.

Bob_Loblaw said:
If anything, IMG wasted their time playing against a bad opponent. They went into a completely vanilla offense and it was essentially a scrimmage for them. The worst case scenario really played out. Could someone have been injured? Sure. That can happen in any game.
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They played and beat Bishop Sycamore by 50 points last year. They were either agreeing to a game against a team that they knew was over-matched or they thought they were getting the new and improved Bishop Sycamore with the D-I athletes added. I just think they had an obligation to try to find out which it was. (And maybe they did, because IMG hasn't said much as far as I can tell.)
 





Their next two games have been cancelled by the teams they were supposed to play.
 

Warren Central here in Indianapolis apparently played them in 19-20 season n beat them 37-6. My kid was still there n we went to alot of games, but this one seemed weird. Supposedly a travel game. Everyone on yappi.com ohio football talked how fake they were then n I dont think this game happened. So no surprise at all of ESPN work ethic, not vetting teams or players n shadiness of BS. Have a good day
 

Bob_Loblaw said:
I know Gentry has a building, it holds classes, it's accredited, it's in the MSHL, it has teachers, it has a real roster and it also has division 1 athletes.

I thought the ENTIRE controversy of Bishop Sycamore was that it had none of those things. . .
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Correct and did not have a building, weren’t an MSHSL member, or accredited teachers.5 years ago. But they did have a hockey team and family with plenty of money.
 

State of Football said:
Correct and did not have a building, weren’t an MSHSL member, or accredited teachers.5 years ago. But they did have a hockey team and family with plenty of money.
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I understand the founders have some cash and it seems pretty obvious that is where most of your angst with the school comes from, but this is simply not the truth.

Before they moved to Vadnais Heights, the school (actual building) was in Blaine. I guess I can't speak to how long they have been accredited but it has been years. They really seem to be helping the students who attend the school with a large number of them going on to earn athletic scholarships. It's not a traditional HS experience, but it is significantly closer than playing Juniors or going to the US Development Team.

It sounds like they have done everything right. Comparing them to Bishop Sycamore is missing the entire reason why Bishop Sycamore is fraud.
 

I don’t want to hijack the thread and will end here. Where they are alike is fraud status. They’ve yet to have a scholarship athlete and their education is questionable at best. Ask the colleges. Edina and Eden Prairie would be more comparable to the US DEV. team in Ann Arbor.
 

State of Football said:
I don’t want to hijack the thread and will end here. Where they are alike is fraud status. They’ve yet to have a scholarship athlete and their education is questionable at best. Ask the colleges. Edina and Eden Prairie would be more comparable to the US DEV. team in Ann Arbor.
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Let's use Shattuck in hockey for our example. They are not a member of the MSHSL for hockey, but they are absolutely a real school that has been around for decades. Yes, they are a hockey development program, but also a legit school.

I believe the US Development Program kids also have to attend school, especially since many go onto play D1 college hockey.

This feels a little similar to when guys like Dustin Byfuglien go play juniors in Canada because they can't stay eligible in high school.
 




Is that the prep school that Royce White and Jameis Winston attended?
 



Another weird one involving IMG.
I wonder if West Toronto Prep got called for a lot of false starts and kept punting on 3rd down?


 





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