California delays high school sports until December

The fall high school sports season in California will be postponed until at least December, the California Interscholastic Federation announced Monday.

The state of play: The three typical high school sports seasons — fall, winter and spring — will be played between December and June and compressed into either fall or spring seasons.

• Football — a staple of fall Fridays — will now take place in winter and spring, with the last game played no later than April 17, 2021.
• Basketball and baseball will now overlap and end in late June, forcing multisport athletes to make tough decisions.
• Athletes will be permitted to participate on club teams at the same time as their high school seasons in a temporary suspension of CIF rules.

The big picture: The fall high school sports season has also been called off in New Mexico, Washington, D.C., and Virginia (football only so far).

• Eleven other states — Arizona, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Washington and West Virginia — have delayed the start of football, in most cases by a few weeks.

What to watch: Texas, Florida and Georgia — the three biggest high school football states besides California — are still moving forward with fall seasons.

• The first games in Texas are still scheduled for Aug. 27, per USA Today.
• The Florida High School Athletic Association voted on Monday to retain its fall sports start date of July 27.
• The Georgia High School Association voted on Monday to push the season back two weeks, with a proposed start date of Sept. 4.

The bottom line: California's revised high school sports calendar isn't ideal for multisport athletes and will present facilities challenges. But it also might give the state's 800,000+ athletes their best shot at playing their respective sports.