The riveting true story of a sham school run by longtime con men whose
scheme crashed and burned live on television
In August of 2021, a high school football team became the talk of the
nation. A featured matchup on ESPN pitted national powerhouse IMG
Academy against a school called Bishop Sycamore--a program with an
unfamiliar name, a barely functional website, and a long list of
baggage.
The supposedly elite Bishop Sycamore lost 56-0, embarrassing
broadcasters and setting social media alight. Within days, the program
fired its coach, deleted its website, and prompted a string of official
investigations.
The story of the school, however, began three years earlier when an
unknown program called COF Academy launched in Columbus, Ohio.
Journalist Andrew King and whistleblower Ben Ferree pushed for years to
expose this exploitation of high school football and education systems
which left vulnerable students in the crossfire and culminated in a
series of lawsuits and criminal charges.
Readers will learn how a pair of old friends hatched a disastrous plan
in this rigorously reported tale of ambition, greed and the allure of
sports.
