Washington Catholic Athletic Conference delays high school football season until at least January

The Washington Catholic Athletic Conference is the latest to join the growing chorus of states pushing high school football to 2021. Comprised of parochial schools in Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C., three WCAC teams ranked in our preseason Top 25 won't be playing in 2020 along with Caleb Williams, the country's No. 1 rated quarterback.

Williams and Gonzaga (Washington, D.C.) are ranked No. 31 in our preseason Top 100, while defending WCAC champs Our Lady of Good Counsel (Olney, Md.) checked in at No. 18, the highest-ranked conference team.

St. John's (Washington, D.C.) and DeMatha (Hyattsville, Md.) land right behind the Falcons at Nos. 19 and 20, respectively.

The WCAC is "exploring various scheduling options with a start date of Jan. 1, 2021," according to the Washington Post.

"The safety of our student athletes will always be the first priority in any future decisions concerning rescheduling of fall sports," WCAC commissioner Steve Colantuoni said in a statement.

Gonzaga's 5-star quarterback, an Oklahoma commit, isn't the only notable recruit facing the decision to play this spring or forgo his senior season.

Others include 2021 Penn State commit Landon Tengwall; a trio of Maryland commits Taizse Johnson, Antwain Littleton and Colby McDonald; 2021 USC commit Colin Mobley; and 2021 LSU commit Greg Penn III.

Williams and Tengwall were both named to our preseason All-American first team.

Southern California's Trinity League was the only other league/conference to feature three preseason Top 25 teams in No. 2 Mater Dei (Santa Ana), No. 3 St. John Bosco (Bellflower), and No. 23 Servite (Anaheim).

The CIF on July 20 moved football to 2021.

Nine teams ranked in our initial Top 25 are from states announcing plans to bump football back to 2021 due to the coronavirus pandemic.

When it comes to states starting the football season, Utah is on track to be the first with games kicking off on Aug. 13.