Before Indiana University quarterback Fernando Mendoza won the Heisman Trophy and helped the Hoosiers lift the national championship trophy, before he became the consensus projected number one pick in this year's NFL Draft, he was an unheralded 3-star recruit from Miami.
The Christopher Columbus High School product wasn’t offered a scholarship by the Hurricanes, and instead played two seasons at the University of California, Berkeley. When he entered the transfer portal at the end of last season, the Hurricanes finally took notice. He was reportedly offered a Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) deal valued around $3 million, but turned it down in favor of the Hoosiers. On Monday night, he led Indiana to a 27-21 victory over the Hurricanes at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. It's the Hoosiers' first ever national title and the first 16-0 college football season since 1894.
Mendoza’s story is one uniquely suited to modern college football, where transfers and NIL deals have altered the landscape of the sport. Monday’s game involved two teams whose players combined to make tens of millions of dollars this year. Mendoza’s opposite number, Miami QB Carson Beck — who had his Lamborghini stolen last February — reportedly made close to $5 million this season while Mendoza made an estimated $2.3 million. Beck also started his college career at a different school.
READ MORE: Indiana completes undefeated season and wins first national title, beating Miami
The change has happened quickly. When Mendoza was leading Columbus to a state semifinal appearance in 2021, he was making the same amount of money as Mac Jones, the Alabama QB who had won that year's college football national championship — nothing.
But now donors and corporations are pouring cash into athletic departments across the country, and while that money largely goes into players' pockets and athletic department coffers, universities have begun to try to capitalize on the increased attention from their sports programs.
That's especially consequential for Indiana, whose football fortunes have reversed completely in the past few seasons. The team has had back-to-back 10-win seasons, the first in program history. Their Rose Bowl victory over Alabama on New Year's Day was the school's first bowl win since 1991. Jeremy Gray, senior associate athletic director, said the school’s turnaround has been remarkable.
“ When I first got to IU, the fence around the stadium had barbed wire on the top. We could not keep grass on our practice field. So we practiced on the main stadium field and then the grass died and we had to spray paint the dirt green. Now we're filling the stadium and we're the number one ranked team in the country,” he said.
The newfound attention has brought in significant money, including from one of the school’s most famous alumni —billionaire Mark Cuban.
Cuban made his first ever donation to Indiana’s athletic department and said he gave again this year. While he did not disclose how much his donations were, he called his 2024 donation “a big number.” For his recent donation, he told Front Office Sports, “Let’s just say they are happier this year than last year.”
Miami has its own billionaire backer. John Ruiz, founder of LifeWallet, was an early endorser of the Hurricanes' NIL program. Since 2021, he's given NIL opportunities to more than 100 Miami athletes and donated in excess of $20 million, but he's stepped back recently due to legal troubles with his businesses. In total, Miami's national championship roster was estimated to be worth around $30 million.
The publicity from prominent donors can help motivate a school's alumni base. That's especially true for Indiana, who claims to have the largest in the country. Jonathan Coffington, chief communications and marketing officer, says those 806,000 alumni are rallying to support the school and admits that “football isn't hurting us.”
“ This success we're seeing this year on the field also means helping us raise over a hundred million dollars in scholarship and financial aid resources to make an IU education affordable to kids who might not otherwise be able to afford it,” he said.
Coffington pointed to the school’s research investments that exceeded $1 billion this year for the first time ever. He also notes that applications are up 60% since 2021 — that’s before they started having winning football seasons.
Indiana’s success hasn’t been bankrolled exclusively by billionaires. Over 6,000 individual donors have pitched in, including one woman who has been a fan of Indiana football for more than 70 years. She mailed in an envelope with $10 inside.
“ I always say athletics is the front porch. Maybe not the most important room in the house, but it is the room that everybody sees when they drive by. But the kitchen, the family room, the master bedroom, and the kids' bedrooms are great at Indiana too,” said Gray.
