As of last week, even after the Winston sexual assault allegations hit the fan, most Heisman voters still had Winston at the top of the list, right in front of last year's winner Johnny Manziel by a fairly close margin with quarterbacks Bryce Petty of Baylor and Marcus Mariota of Oregon coming in a distant third. All three of those frontrunners had sub par performances in disastrous losing efforts on Saturday. With two games left to play for Florida State, if Winston's continued on-the-field performances keep its pace, he is clearly the frontrunner...on the field that is.

But due to the nature of these sexual assault allegations combined with the lagging performances of the other Heisman frontrunners, the door has now been opened for people like Alabama quarterback AJ McCarron, Boston College running back Andre Williams and maybe even a mid-major level player like Northern Illinois quarterback Jordan Lynch. But let's be honest, without the allegations Winston is significantly ahead right now.

What is truly sad about the Winston situation isn't just a case of whether he is guilty or not, or what the accuser must be going through, this is also about what society has become. In the court of public opinion Winston is getting hammered. And make no mistake this is a court that is being held daily if not on an hourly basis despite the fact Winston has never been charged with anything. He's never been arrested after 11 months and two different law enforcement investigations.

If one had tuned in to ESPNU on Saturday at 3:30 pm ET to watch Florida State take on Idaho at Doak Campbell Stadium in Tallahassee one could have seen ESPN sideline reporter Mark Schwartz standing on the field in a top-of-the-line businessman suit . He had a microphone in hand with the stadium as a backdrop and Jameis Winston was sitting on the end of the bench after just leading his offense down the field to take an early 7-0 lead. As Schwartz takes his moment in the ESPN sun he reports, "Winston is at the center of a sexual assault investigation and these are tumultuous times in Tallahassee. On Wednesday, ESPN was the first to report that DNA supplied by Winston was a match for DNA found on his accuser's underwear."

Now I have been around the football world for quite some time as a player and media personality. Semen in a young girl's underwear? On the sideline report while the Seminoles line up to kickoff? What in the world is wrong with this country? Hopefully most parents who had a young one sitting around watching the game on television didn't really know what DNA on a girl's underwear had to do with football. Sadly enough, they probably do now. This is what ESPN has become, this is what reality television and the need to sell news has created and ESPN is knee deep in it. Semen in a girl's underwear may work out well in the ratings department for either TMZ or ESPN, which are closely related this day in age, but on the sideline while a game is going on? Will somebody please stand up to these corporation news giants and stop this madness? And why is it important for Schwartz to note that "ESPN was the first to report the DNA (semen) in the underwear"? Guess they wanted to beat TMZ to the punch on this one.

I have seen enough to know I have seen too much.

Most all reports have run Winston through the mud and back again. No doubt this is a he said/she said situation. The only people that truly know what happened on December 7, 2012 are Jameis Winston, the accuser and possibly two witnesses. We've heard a great deal from the accuser through her family and attorney. Why haven't we heard anything from the other three people or any of the details other than the fact that they did have sex, which has been documented by both parties involved?

A FEW IMPORTANT QUESTIONS REMAIN UNANSWERED

1. According to USA Today, Winston's attorney Tim Jansen continues to maintain that his client had done nothing wrong. He said Winston would be exonerated, in part because of the accounts of what he said were two eyewitnesses. Jansen said DNA was collected from one of those witnesses as well. Why was DNA collected from one of the witnesses? It certainly wasn't to discredit the DNA lab that proved Winston had sex with the accuser, they admitted to that already. Hmmmmm, let's get back to that one at a later date.

2. If the accuser and her family stated they never wanted to pursue this case so she could move on with her life why are they pursuing this now with a vengeance? And why did they contradict this statement of moving on with her life by saying they were always waiting to hear from the TPD (Tallahassee Police Department) concerning the blood toxicology test results all the way into April of last year? Which is it, did you want to drop the case or keep waiting to hear from the TPD?

3. The accuser stated the night of the alleged assault that she did not know who her assailant was and that she believed he was anywhere from 5'9" to 5'11" when Winston is 6'4". Maybe an honest mistake given the shock the accuser could had just gone through. But did she really know who Winston was prior to December 7? And did her deleted social media accounts on Twitter that have just been taken down in the last week show that she was having relations with Winston prior to December 7? Even if they do show as much that would not prove a man cannot be guilty of committing a sex crime. But why did it take a month to call out Winston's name while claiming she never knew who he was in the first place? And why has it not come out yet that she might have had relations with Winston prior to December 7? Blood tests proved she was not intoxicated on the night in question so being drunk at the time and forgetting is not on the table.

4. Social media use by young students this day in age is wide spread. It is nearly impossible to walk around any campus without seeing most of the students with their face buried in a cell phone. Ahhh, the text messages. What did they say before, during and after the day of December 7? Will we ever know? It can be assured the State Attorney's Office has them or will have them. Best advice, if you are interested in committing a crime or accusing another person of something, don't use a cell phone or social media to talk about the event.

5. Why did TMZ break this story and where are all the media leaks coming from?

Let's take a look at question No. 5 for a moment. News gossip network TMZ did break this story. Now several news gossip networks are reporting that no charges will be filed against Winston because on the night in question the accuser got mad when learning that Winston's hometown girlfriend was coming to Tallahassee and started beating the crap out of him prior to calling the police to report a rape. Winston's roommate and another witness corroborated this already to the police. The report also claims that a Tampa Bay Times writer helped to leak her side of the story and report on it daily through a family member after having known the accuser while covering her when she played volleyball in high school. The report also claims the accuser belonged to a Twitter clique called #FSUcleatchasers. The handle has since been deleted but there are Google cached tweets still available to the general public that show this female group had a past history of chasing FSU male athletes. Is this all speculation? To answer a question with a question, isn't all of this speculation?

Why would any website, including NationalChamps.net, put their reputation on the line by quoting a smut source such as this? Embarrassing is it not? Why would ESPN put their reputation on the line by quoting a smut source such as TMZ? Embarrassing is it not? But hey, if it's on TV or the internet it must be true.

What a decision to make for Willie Meggs because this is no ordinary case by a long shot. This isn't the same case Meggs had to process ten years go when he charged Florida State football player Travis Johnson, who later went on to become a NFL first-round draft pick, with sexual battery after a female student-athlete accused him of forcing himself on her at an off-campus apartment. It's a great story worth reading. The Tallahassee Democrat reports that Johnson vehemently expressed his innocence at the time, and he later was found not guilty by an all-woman jury after less than 30 minutes of deliberation. “He (Meggs) had all the evidence in the world not to go to trial, and I still went to trial,” Johnson said. He also says he passed three polygraph examinations and that two medical experts told investigators the attack was unlikely to have happened the way the complainant described. Nonetheless, Meggs charged Johnson and he was suspended from the FSU program. Now Johnson is saying he fears Winston will be put through the same torture.

Maybe the two situations are very similar and yet they are worlds apart. Winston is going to win the Heisman Trophy if he is not charged and the world is definitely watching through a much bigger magnifying glass of epic proportions. Meggs not only has to take into consideration what his investigation turns up and dictates for the two young people directly involved in this mess, but he has to realize what this mess means for him and his office. If he charges Winston with a felony and it goes to court where Winston is later found innocent, oh man the ramifications will be dire. In other words, Meggs better be fairly certain he can get a conviction in a court of law before filing charges this time around. The usual prosecutor's theory of "just throwing the evidence on the wall and see what sticks in court" ain't going to cut it in this case.

The only solace for FSU fans may be that a decision whether to charge Winston or not should come before Heisman ballots are due on Monday, November 9. Most Heisman voters are in a wait-and-see mode to find out what Meggs will decide.