{"id":113260,"date":"2026-01-10T16:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-10T16:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/113260\/"},"modified":"2026-01-10T16:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-10T16:44:10","slug":"fernando-mendoza-rejected-miamis-nil-payday-now-hes-one-win-from-a-national-title","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/113260\/","title":{"rendered":"Fernando Mendoza rejected Miami\u2019s NIL payday \u2014 now he\u2019s one win from a national title"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/ncaa-football\/indiana\/news\/fernando-mendoza-rejected-miami-nil-national-title\/aa4abbea19cc902af7605146?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=appeared_on\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Fernando Mendoza rejected Miami\u2019s NIL payday \u2014 now he\u2019s one win from a national title;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Fernando Mendoza rejected Miami\u2019s NIL payday \u2014 now he\u2019s one win from a national title<\/a> originally appeared on <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us?utm_source=yahoo&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=appeared_on\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:The Sporting News;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">The Sporting News<\/a>. Add The Sporting News as a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/preferences\/source?q=https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Preferred Source by clicking here;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Fernando Mendoza bet on himself last winter by turning down a richer NIL payday at Miami in favor of a chance he believed would better define his future. One win from a national championship, the wager is nearly complete at Indiana<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>Fernando Mendoza has led one of the most remarkable seasons in college football history. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/ncaa-football\/indiana\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Indiana Hoosiers;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Indiana Hoosiers<\/a> won their first Big Ten title since 1967 and Mendoza earned the school&#8217;s first Heisman Trophy.<\/p>\n<p>The California transfer has thrown for 3,349 yards, 41 touchdowns and six interceptions, transforming Indiana into the No. 1 team entering the College Football Playoff. They haven&#8217;t let up off the gas since.<\/p>\n<p>The decision almost never happened. According to former agent Ben Dogra, Mendoza turned down a more lucrative NIL offer from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sportingnews.com\/us\/ncaa-football\/miami\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Miami Hurricanes;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Miami Hurricanes<\/a>, his hometown school. He said Indiana\u2019s deal paid roughly $2.3 million, while Miami\u2019s offer exceeded $3 million, a difference that led the Hurricanes to pursue Carson Beck instead.<\/p>\n<p>Mendoza prioritized development over a homecoming or money. At Indiana, he joined coach Curt Cignetti\u2019s system to play alongside his brother, Alberto, and believed he had a clearer path to becoming an NFL quarterback.<\/p>\n<p>Advertisement<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat\u2019s coaching,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.msn.com\/en-us\/sports\/other\/fernando-mendoza-rejected-nearly-1-million-more-from-miami-to-play-at-iu\/ar-AA1SCTIB\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\" data-ylk=\"slk:Dogra said;elm:context_link;itc:0;sec:content-canvas\" class=\"link \">Dogra said<\/a>. \u201cHe thought he\u2019d have a better chance to grow and get ready for the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mendoza\u2019s plan worked. He has surged up draft boards and is now viewed as the No. 1 overall pick. One more win would turn a calculated gamble into a championship legacy as the Hoosiers chase history.<\/p>\n<p>More college football news:<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fernando Mendoza rejected Miami\u2019s NIL payday \u2014 now he\u2019s one win from a national title originally appeared on&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113261,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[57560,4654,57559,10241,11450,6795,123,125,5079,124,36634],"class_list":["post-113260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-miami","tag-ben-dogra","tag-carson-beck","tag-college-football-history","tag-college-football-playoff","tag-fernando-mendoza","tag-indiana-hoosiers","tag-miami","tag-miami-headlines","tag-miami-hurricanes","tag-miami-news","tag-nil"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113260","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113260"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113260\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113261"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}