Will Florida State Punish Jameis Winston to Save Itself?

The attorney representing of the accuser of Jameis Winston believesFlorida State is on the verge of punishing the Seminoles' two-sport star in the alleged rape of another student.

"The university took the position that since he refused to respond to questions, they could not make any Title IX findings," Baine Kerr said to USA Today. "We have objected to that as impermissible reason to delay or terminate a Title IX sexual assault investigation because that would permit any charged party to thwart an investigation simply by refusing to answer questions."

"We expect that they will change their position," Kerr continued. "We expect those charges will be forthcoming."

Florida State is being investigated by the Feds for the way they botched the Winston investigation and could be in major trouble.

The question I have is will he be punished? Florida State has put its reputation on the line for this kid and it looks like they could pay a major price for it. And they should.

From the sounds of it, Winston should have at least been suspended a few games until this issue was resolved, but it's obvious that the university was so desperate to win a national championship, they tried to sweep this incident under a rug.

But you know what they say, what you do in the dark will eventually come to light. That New York Times story had some very disturbing details about this current case and another report involving another female.

Florida State sat back and did nothing. Now, it looks like they will be forced to take some sort of action whether they wanted to or not.

This is where it gets tricky. It's looking more and more like Winston all but did an OJ; the only thing missing is he didn't write a book entitled If I Did It.

It appears the university would have two possible avenues to suspend Winston. One would involve the second coed -- mentioned in the Times exposé -- who alleged he raped her, but she has yet to take action. The other would be an enforcement of its code of conduct for students, which could give it more leeway to do something without law enforcement officials being involved.

My prediction is that he won't be playing this year. At some point, I believe the Feds will nail the Seminoles and will threaten to make them pay a major fine if they don't punish Winston. And since he's playing baseball in a Division I school, he can't take that option and declare for the MLB draft until after his junior season; even if he transfers to a junior college, it's not going to appreciably accelarate that timeline.

Winston can only hope the Seminoles find a way to milquetoast their way out of all this.

And it's all in the name of winning a national football championship.

I guess winning isn't everything.