Gary Blair, who coached Texas A&M to a national basketball title in 2011, was asked recently about how unionization of college athletes might affect women’s sports.

A college spokesman briskly approached Blair in an arena corridor, frantically waved his hands, mentioned an admonition from the athletic director and said in a brusque tone, “Do not answer this question.”

Yet there may not be a more urgent issue in sports: What if the preliminary right given to Northwestern scholarship football players to form a union expands to various men’s and women’s teams across the country?

It is as if a basketball has been tossed in the air for a center jump and no one knows which way it will be tapped. The potential impact on women’s sports has fostered cautious optimism, confusion and suspicion that female athletes will continue to be denied a fair slice of the athletic pie.