Clear of conduct hearing, Jameis Winston can (finally) focus solely on football

For now – and for once – it’s only about football for Jameis Winston.

What’s left of the Florida State quarterback’s season – one game or two – can go forward without complication. There is no more threat of suspension or expulsion or prosecution hanging over him. He will play Jan. 1 in the Rose Bowl against Oregon, and if the Seminoles win he will play again Jan. 12 in the College Football Playoff championship game.

Unless there is one more land mine out there for him to step on. With Jameis, never say never.

But for the first time since November 2013, the cloud of an alleged sexual assault has lifted from above Winston. The Florida State Student Code of Conduct hearing ruling came down Sunday, and former state Supreme Court chief justice Major Harding did not charge Winston with any of four potential violations of that code. That followed by more than a year the decision by state attorney Willie Meggs not to charge Winston with a crime after he was accused of raping an FSU coed.

Given the shoddy handling of the case initially by law enforcement, those likely were inevitable results. But that's well-plowed ground.

In terms of tangible football consequence, a sexual encounter from December 2012 no longer has the potential to keep Winston off the field. Which is the only consequence FSU fans care about.

His accuser still can sue in civil court. And she still can appeal Harding’s decision. But neither of those things is going to affect this season.

Winston will suit up and play, in search of his 28th and 29th collegiate victories without a defeat. The run-up to the Rose Bowl may actually deal with football – or just “ball,” in the Jimbo Fisher vocabulary. A school that has spent more than a year protecting its star player like a secret-service detail may actually get to stand down from red-alert status.

Then we’ll see whether he has played his last college ball, and he relocates to the NFL.

That league will have a boatload of character concerns to wade through. Good judgment is vital for a pro quarterback, and Winston has left plenty of room for doubt in that area. A student conduct hearing doesn’t change that, no matter how much Winston legal mouthpiece David Cornwell may want people to believe.

But Florida State buried whatever concerns it has about Winston long ago. The school has been all-in with the ’13 Heisman Trophy winner for a long time now, no matter the cost to its reputation. With this ruling out of the way, FSU now can tell Winston to go do what he’s done better than anyone in college football in a long time:

Just win, baby.

This game against Oregon figures to be his toughest test yet, however. Winston is undefeated as a college starter, but he’s also been favored in every start – until this one. This will be an interesting role reversal.

The Ducks are nine-point favorites, a huge spread in a meeting of this magnitude. And Winston isn’t even the best quarterback on the field. With 15 more interceptions, 14 fewer touchdown passes and 813 fewer total yards, he’s statistically no match for 2014 Heisman winner Marcus Mariota.

Surviving the code of conduct hearing won’t tangibly assist Winston in matching points with Mariota and the Ducks. He’s played through so much controversy already, any theory that he will be unburdened by this ruling doesn’t make sense.

No, the biggest assist Winston and Florida State got in preparing for this game was the stunning, season-ending knee injury to Oregon cornerback Ifo Ekpre-Olomu suffered last week. He is an All-American, a likely high NFL draft pick (or was, before the injury) and easily the star of the Ducks’ secondary. Ekpre-Olomu certainly would have been key to Oregon’s coverage schemes on star FSU wide receiver Rashad Greene, whose 93 receptions and 1,306 yards dwarf any other Seminole receiver’s totals.

A diminished Oregon secondary is an inviting target for Winston and the ‘Noles. In a two-year run where just about everything has eventually gone their way – legally, administratively and on the field – that is a big final break.

And now any possibility of school discipline against Jameis Winston is gone, too. For the first time in a very long time, it’s just football for No. 5.