This summer, ESPN aired a high school football game featuring a team called “Bishop Sycamore.” After a blowout loss, concerned journalists investigated the school, only to discover that it was, to everyone’s surprise, effectively a fake institution. For details on this bizarre story, see this article (as well as others, if you like): https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/sep/03/espn-bishop-sycamore-fake-high-school-allegation-football-img-academy
Your discussion question for this week is this: What social problems underlie this story? How does sociology help us understand how this team came to be, how it persisted, how it came to play a game on live television, and the public outcry following investigation into the institution?
Testimonials
Sociology and North American Sport