

It’s gotten to the point where Jameis Winston deserves a personal 24-hour cable news network. (Bill Cotterell/Tallahassee Democrat via Associated Press)

By now, we’ve all accepted that, when it comes to Jameis Winston, there’s never a dull moment. When the quarterback is not leading Florida State to one exciting win after another, garnering national titles and Heisman trophies along the way, he’s making far less noble news off the field.

But even by Winston’s lofty standards for drama, Friday was a doozy.

The day began with a leaked Florida State letter to supporters, in which the school admitted that it waited months to initiate an investigation after it learned of an accusation of sexual assault against Winston, which could be a violation of the FSU’s Title IX obligations.

Then a report was published by Fox Sports, which detailed all sorts of actions by FSU officials, as well as Tallahassee police, that appear to have hindered an official investigation into the sexual assault allegation.

Just a couple of hours after that, the New York Times published its own exhaustively researched story, from which it’s apparent that, if Winston did receive preferential treatment from authorities, he was just the latest in a long line of Seminole athletes to so benefit. (In particular, the story does a nice job illuminating how many members of the Tallahassee police department benefit financially from the success of FSU athletics.)

Still later, stories emerged that Winston was informed that he will face a school disciplinary hearing related to the sexual assault accusation. According to ESPN, “FSU interim President Garnett Stokes and vice president for student affairs Mary B. Coburn notified Winston that he might be charged with as many as four violations of FSU’s student conduct code, two of which involve sexual conduct.”

But shortly before the clock struck midnight on Friday, came a report of a potential separate Winston scandal that’s far less inherently troubling, but could have a more immediate impact on his eligibility to play.

BREAKING: Jameis Winston has been linked to the same autograph dealer/authenticator. — Carmine Carcieri (@chinstrapcc) October 11, 2014

That would be the “same autograph dealer” who is linked to Georgia star Todd Gurley. Gurley just got suspended indefinitely on suspicions that he was paid to affix his signature to a large amount of memorabilia, which was then sent to James Spence Authentication. That would be a violation of NCAA rules, and the Bulldogs could have been forced to forfeit future games in which Gurley played.

One of the damning pieces of evidence for Gurley’s illicit involvement is the fact that several hundred pieces of autographed memorabilia authenticated by James Spence are grouped in direct order by serial number. That indicates that Gurley autographed them all at once, and it’s hard to imagine he wasn’t compensated in any way for making that kind of effort.

Well, the Web site Racing to a Red Light revealed that Winston also has a lot of autographed items authenticated by James Spence — and that over a hundred of them have consecutive serial numbers. Hmmmm.

Georgia saw fit to suspend Gurley, who was a front-runner this year for the Heisman, rather than wait to find out what came of an investigation into his alleged violation of NCAA rules on improper benefits. Shouldn’t Florida State do the same with Winston?

The Seminoles play Syracuse at noon Saturday. Between now and then, the school has a LOT of questions to answer about its most high-profile athlete.