NCAA Doesn't Care About the Jameis Winston Autograph "Scandal"

Anyone waiting for Jameis Winston to be suspended for Saturday’s pivotal against Notre Dame should give up hope.

Georgia suspended Heisman Trophy leader Todd Gurley for last weekend’s game against Missouri after a scorned memorabilia dealer came forward with photo and video evidence that the star running back was paid to sign items.

While most agree that Gurley should be able to profit from his likeness, the dumb NCAA has silly rules against such a thing. There was direct evidence of Gurley violating said rules. So, Georgia suspended its best player.

Even without him, Georgia won. (Converse: What if Georgia had just said, ‘to hell with this memorabilia dealer and his evidence, we’re playing our star and if you have to rescind games later, so be it?’ Then what? Could the keystone cops at the NCAA figure this out?)

Winston’s case is different: Despite ESPN reporting that around 950 items have been signed and authenticated, nobody has yet to come forward saying “I have evidence Winston was paid for these items.” One suspects he was paid – again, not that there’s anything wrong with that – but, unless someone comes forward, there isn’t much incentive for FSU or the NCAA to actively pursue it. Suspending star football players benefits no one.

Nevertheless, many shops in Vegas have pulled the Notre Dame – Florida State game off the board. It opened around FSU -11.5, and if you were fortunate enough to get in on that action, perhaps you’ll get lucky and FSU will be forced to start backup Sean Maguire. He looked ordinary against Clemson in a game FSU should have lost.