Sports Illustrated Unveils Candidates for High School All-America Team

Eight Cal commits are among he 1,000-plus names that have evaluations and video highlights in huge database of candidates

Will any of the players who committed to Cal for 2021 turn up on Sports Illustrated’s 2020 All-American high school football team? Eight of the nine Cal commits are among the 1,000-plus candidates for the SI honors.

SI introduced the project on Wednesday, outlining the plans and schedule of elements to be revealed over the next days and weeks.

On Thursday, July 16, Sports Illustrated will reveal its No. 1-ranked overall player, and on Friday, July 17, it will unveil the first of its positional top 10 lists (quarterbacks) that it will roll out over the summer.

Will Cal commit Kai Millner be ranked among the top 10 quarterbacks? Will Jermaine Terry, who verbally committed to the Golden Bears, get a spot among the top 10 tight ends? Will J. Michael Sturdivant make his way onto the top 10 wide receivers? Are any of Cal’s recruiting targets on one of those top-10 lists?

Click here for a story on the Cal commits and Bears recruiting targets who are on the SI list of All-America candidates.

SI will announce its Preseason Top 99 (the SI99) on August 24. The project will culminate with 25 first-team Sports Illustrated All-Americans saluted at SI’s annual Sportsperson of the Year banquet in New York in December.

“We have scouting analysis and video highlights for all 1,000 candidates, broken down by state,” Sports Illustrated’s director of recruiting John Garcia Jr. said. The list also is broken down by verbal commitments and top targets for each of the 65 Power 5 schools (as well as Notre Dame and BYU).

SI introduces its huge project this way:

College football’s 2021 recruiting class will be the most unique in the modern history of the talent chase because on both sides of the equation -- the players’ and the coaches’ -- there’s a leap of faith like never before as a result of the social restrictions triggered by COVID-19, Sports Illustrated’s director of recruiting John Garcia Jr. said today as Sports Illustrated unveiled its watch list of 1,000 high school senior football players for the 2020 SI All-American team.

Garcia cautioned that the avalanche of early verbals could trigger an equally unprecedented number of de-commits as the first signing period in December draws closer.

The candidates will be narrowed to 250 finalists in October and 99 finalists in November, and will culminate with 25 first-team Sports Illustrated All-Americans saluted at SI’s annual Sportsperson of the Year banquet in New York in December.

Read the entire SI story on the project by clicking here.

Follow SI All-American at si.com/college/recruiting/ and on social media: @SIAllAmerican and #SIAAtop1000

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