Just another typical big game week in Tallahassee at Florida State University.

The undefeated, defending national champs host fifth-ranked and also unbeaten Notre Dame on Saturday. With any big game comes the usual amount of “College Gameday” hype and what is becoming the usual Jameis Winston controversy.

While we’re waiting for the Title IX investigation to occur stemming from the rape allegations against Winston 22 months ago, a report came out that Winston has done the unthinkable in college sports – he allegedly signed autographs for money! (Gasp!)

As egregious as amateur athletes actually collecting money from their own likeness instead of their schools and television networks collecting money on the athletes likenesses sounds, it’s a very small deal in the big picture of Winston indiscretions.

Florida State head coach Jimbo Fisher is doing the only thing he can do. He’s sticking by his quarterback.

“He’s never taken a dime for anything,” Fisher said in his weekly press conference. “He’s signed thousands of things. I mean, the guy sits for an hour and a half before a baseball game and signed and an hour and a half after a baseball game — I mean, there are thousands of things out there with his name on it.

“He is very accommodating to people.”

Clearly Winston is accommodating to most people that don’t say no to him.

It appears that Fisher and Florida State are going to back Winston no matter what he does, no matter what the allegation. The more talent you have, the more leeway you get. In sports and in life, and there’s no better example than what is going on at Florida State.

One of the obvious reasons that the school will follow Winston to the potential depths of NCAA hell is his play on the field. Winston has never lost a game in a Florida State uniform. National titles are tough to win if you have a Heisman Trophy winner as your quarterback. They’re impossible to win with a backup quarterback. Winning today trumps everything else, right?

Of course it does, but winning tomorrow is also a pretty big deal.

Fisher is unquestionably one of the best recruiters in the nation. When top-level recruits look at Florida State University, they see a program that routinely places their players in the first round of the NFL Draft. They also see a coach who has his players’ backs- no matter what. When Fisher goes to a five-star recruit’s living room and tells the young man and his family that he’s going to take care of the boy, he means it.

Even if it’s sometimes to the detriment of the reputation of the University, the other students and possibly even the young man in question.

Recruits care about winning and playing in a system that will give them the best chance to get to the NFL. Florida State certainly offers that.

The Seminoles haven’t lost a game since we believed that Manti Te’o’s girlfriend was still alive and they currently have 35 players in the NFL.

Despite the indiscretions of Jameis Winston, having another Heisman Trophy and crystal football in the trophy case only helps when asking the best high school players in the nation to come to your school. That’s why Jimbo Fisher has virtually no choice but to play his star quarterback and back him publicly as long as the law will allow him to.