A fake high school gets a football game on ESPN — orchestrated by a coach with a gift for the con.
What follows is part sports scam, part cult story, and a full-on indictment of how broken amateur athletics are.
Shout out to Sean Shuman of MovieWeb for highlighting this one for us.
Trailer for “BS High”
You Can’t Make This Sh!t Up
- Bishop Sycamore had no school building. It wasn’t even a real high school.
- Coach Roy Johnson encouraged players to take out COVID PPP loans for fake tuition.
- At least one hotel reported Roy owed them $110,000 in unpaid bills.
- The players were so hungry, they reportedly stole TV dinners from Walmart.
More Highlights from the Doc
- The team roster included men in their 20s pretending to be high schoolers—some with past criminal records, others just hoping for one last football shot.
- They played two games in three days—a medical risk for any athlete, let alone underfed kids with no trainers.
- Johnson reportedly forged checks at Kinko’s, left hotel bills unpaid, and ran the program with over 30 lawsuits pending against him.
- The school’s promotional website used stock photos and fake faculty names—some pulled straight from educational job boards.
- The doc reveals that there’s no federal law preventing something like Bishop Sycamore from happening again.
Watch “BS High”
You can watch “BS High” on HBO Max or Hulu.
Ratings:
- My Rating: 91/100
- IMDB Rating: 7.2/10
- Rotten Tomatoes Ratings: 86/100 (Users); 100/100 (Critics)
Director’s Note
“BS High” is directed by Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe. They’re the Oscar-winning duo behind the drama “Two Distant Strangers.”
Release Date: August 23, 2023 (HBO)
My Review of “BS High”
The Setup
In August 2021, Bishop Sycamore—a supposed online prep school—convinced ESPN they were a legit football program. They got a game against IMG Academy (who pulled in $79M in 2021), lost 58-0, and instantly sparked a national scandal. Turns out, most of the players weren’t high schoolers. The “school” had no classes, no campus, and no legal accreditation.
The story centers on Roy Johnson, the charismatic but deeply shady coach who promises scholarships, but delivers unpaid bills and no education. Johnson gets a ton of screen time—smirking through allegations, shifting blame, and dropping lines like, “You may think I’m a con artist. I’m not. I’m an innovator.”
More Highlights from the Doc
- The players say Roy made them write fake recruiting letters to colleges—with no real game film or grades behind them.
- One former player says he faked an injury mid-season just so he could leave and not get stuck living in a hotel.
- ESPN says they contracted the game through a third-party scheduling company that never verified Bishop Sycamore’s legitimacy.
Lesser-Known Details from the Doc
- Roy Johnson calls himself an “honest liar”…on camera.
- Roy Johnson was banned from coaching in Ohio before the ESPN game even happened.
- No legal authority clearly had jurisdiction to shut Bishop Sycamore down until after the damage was done. Ohio regulators later admitted the system has no oversight for these kinds of “online” schools.
Wrap Up:
“BS High” is about way more than a football scam. It’s a masterclass in how easy it is to manipulate dreams when no one’s watching.
Thanks for reading!
Heather Fenty, Guest Writer, Daily Doc