The question has been asked by fans since mid-March: What’s going to happen with sports given the far-reaching effects of Covid-19?

Scholastic, collegiate and professional seasons stopped cold with no clear vision of when to reopen.

Now, four months later, the uncertainty remains.

Oh, fall scholastic sports are still part of the plan … but only if schools open. And, after wearing masks, that’s the major hot-button issue when dealing with the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

In short, high school athletics during the autumn season are iffy at best. And if you doubt it, consider that Texas has cancelled the 2020 football season … Texas, right there with Florida and California, as the country’s top-ranked states in that sport.

And college athletics might be even more at risk.

The falling dominoes, as the current cliche goes, began with the Ivy League canceling its fall sports season. Then came the Big Ten and the Pac-10 which both opted for conference-only football schedules.

But even that decision was only a time-buy, granting a mere month from the originally scheduled openers and with no guarantee the situation will have appreciably improved four weeks later.

The Ivy League announcement of no athletics until after Jan. 1 even affected St. Bonaventure’s men’s basketball program as the anticipated game against Yale at the Reilly Center will be canceled.

Decisions on fall sports in several other conferences will be made soon and it’s hard to believe at least some of them won’t follow the lead of the Big Ten and Pac-12.

And if that happens, Notre Dame, an independent in football, is looking at a one-game schedule should the Atlantic Coast Conference (6 games), Southeastern Conference (one), Mid-American (one) go to a conference-only slate to follow the Pac-12 (2 games) and Big Ten (one).

That would leave the Irish with one opponent, fellow independent Navy.

THEN THERE are the pros.

Major League Soccer has restarted in a bubble at Orlando, despite a number of positive Covid-19 tests and NASCAR has done surprisingly well racing at fan-less venues. The penalty is millions of dollars of live gate revenue lost, but having fans on hand doesn’t make nearly the impact it does in other pro sports.

The NHL and NBA are set to resume their abortive seasons, with no fans, on Aug. 3 and July 31, respectively. Pro hockey will have a 24-team modified playoff format with games to be played at Montreal for the Eastern Conference and Edmonton for the West. It’s worth wondering how the Canadian quarantine will affect the 12 teams at each site.

Pro basketball will have a 22-team playoff format with eight seeding games for each franchise and all games being played in a “bubble” at Walt Disney World in Orlando.

Both leagues have been beset by positive tests and player opt-outs even as they soldier on.

Then there’s baseball, which ESPN major league insider Buster Olney predicts has “a 0% chance of completing the (60-game) season.”

A handful of stars have already decided against playing leaving a terrible optic.

This absurd season will be an asterisked joke in baseball history.

Better MLB had put up a $50 million prize fund for a 30-team double elimination tournament — 50 games at most. It would have been interesting and there would be no 37% sham of a full season with statistics that nobody will take seriously.

And the NFL, don’t get me started.

We don’t know how many or even if any preseason games will be played. Will there be fans? Will the regular season be shortened, or played later than scheduled?

What’s happened with college football should be a cautionary tale for the NFL.

However, the way Commissioner Roger Goodell and the league office spin it, “everything’s great and going off as scheduled.”

But here’s the reality that should concern every athlete, scholastic, collegiate or pro.

It’s been revealed in the last two weeks that contracting coronavirus, even after the tests become negative, has shown there can be latent lifetime effects on the heart and lungs.

And if that doesn’t get the public’s attention, nothing will.

(Chuck Pollock, a Times Herald senior sports columnist, can be reached at cpollock@oleantimesherald.com)