The Massachusetts Interscholastic Athletic Association, the not always beloved lords of high-school sports in this state, finally rendered its verdict on how athletics will unfold during the 2020-2021 academic year.

The MIAA Board of Directors on Wednesday approved all 10 of its COVID-19 Task Force’s recommendations.

Following guidelines of the Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) and the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE), only sports categorized as low or moderate risk by the EEA can compete this fall. Moderate-risk sports — field hockey, soccer, girls volleyball, and swimming — must make modifications in an effort to somehow eliminate deliberate and intermittent contact.

High-risk sports, including football, competitive cheer, and unified basketball, will supposedly be allowed during a “floating” fourth season wedged between the winter and spring calendars. These sports can hold fall practices, in accordance with EEA guidelines.

The approved athletic calendar sets the fall season from Sept. 18 to Nov. 20, the winter season from Nov. 30 to Feb. 21, the floating “fall II” season from Feb. 22 through April 25, and the spring season from April 26 through July 3. There are no MIAA sponsored tournaments for the fall season.

“The kids just want to play, and I think that this plan that has been (put) into place allows every kid the chance to do that,” Lowell Athletic Director Dave Lezinski told the Boston Herald.

No matter how the MIAA spins its decision, high-school football has been thrown for a loss, blindsided by the COVID-19 pandemic; it’s been relegated — possibly — to an ersatz season from February to April.

No games under Friday-night lights in the fall, or on crisp autumn Saturday afternoons. No gathering of family and friends on Thanksgiving for a morning appetizer of pigskin followed by a main course of turkey — at the high-school level at least.

No all-day Super Bowl games at Gillette Stadium, the ultimate goal for every high-school football player.

And no tournament or playoff money-makers for the MIAA, a key source of its revenue.

While the popularity of high-school football has been on the decline for years, challenged by the ascendancy of soccer and fear of concussions, it remains instilled in our fall consciousness.

Shorter days, cooler nights, crunchy apples and pumpkins on the stoop won’t be the same without that other unique fall ingredient.

On a practical level, the MIAA’s decision to postpone the football season creates an uneven playing field.

Schools that play on all-weather, artificial surfaces might be able to persevere through the snow, sleet and rain that accompanies late winter and early spring.

But it might be an impossible task for teams that rely on natural turf. The risk of injuries in sloppy conditions, combined with the damage that would be done to those surfaces, puts their seasons in jeopardy.

And what about the physical toll on these student-athletes? They’d face the same prospect shared by some of their collegiate counterparts of playing two football seasons in the same calendar year, should schoolboy sports revert to their normal schedule next fall.

The uncertainties of this pandemic put all the best-laid plans of the MIAA at risk. While it appears that adolescents generally incur milder symptoms than adults, they can still transmit this virus to other vulnerable populations.

Whatever the ultimate fallout, we’d rate the likelihood of any high-school football season at third down and a longshot.

That’s a punt we never thought we’d see.