Key Takeaways

• Mark Cuban paid for Fernando Mendoza’s NIL package that brought him from Cal to Indiana before the 2025 season — a move that led directly to a 16-0 season and a national championship.
• Cuban had never donated to IU athletics before. His charity was strictly academic — until the Hoosiers needed help landing their quarterback.
• He knew the family already. Mendoza’s younger brother Alberto used to sit behind the Miami bench at Heat games and chat with Cuban during Mavs-Heat matchups.
• Mendoza’s salary jumped from $1.6M at Cal to $2.6M at Indiana — Cuban covered the difference.
• The Raiders have their No. 1 pick because of it.

The News

Mark Cuban was at the Indiana-Notre Dame College Football Playoff game in December 2024. The Hoosiers lost 27-17, but in the middle of that game, Cuban found himself in a conversation with athletic director Scott Dolson and university president Pam Whitten that would reshape the future of Indiana football.

Dolson made the pitch: “We’ve got this quarterback that we really, really like that we think would be great in Cig’s system, we just need a little bit more.”

Cuban’s response: “How much is a little bit? … OK, we’re on a roll, I’ll put up the money to get this quarterback.”

That quarterback was Fernando Mendoza. And the rest is history.

It wasn’t charity for charity’s sake. Cuban, a 1981 Indiana graduate worth $6 billion, had never donated to IU athletics before. His giving had been strictly academic. But Dolson found the right angle — and Cuban has never been one to miss an opportunity when he sees value.

“He told me, and I’m like, ‘OK, you know, we’re on a roll, I’ll put up the money to get this quarterback,’” Cuban recalled in an interview with Front Office Sports.

There was a personal connection too. Cuban already knew Mendoza’s family. Fernando’s younger brother, Alberto, was a Heat fan who used to sit behind Miami’s bench during Mavs-Heat games. When Cuban would show up, Alberto would talk to him about IU.

“So I’m like, O.K., I’ll put up the money, and we can go get Fernando.”

Mendoza went from Cal, where he was making $1.6 million in NIL, to Indiana at $2.6 million — a number Cuban helped make happen. The return was immediate and historic: 16-0, a Heisman Trophy, and Indiana’s first national championship in football.

Cuban has never disclosed the exact amount he contributed, only saying he increased his investment during IU’s championship run.

“They are happier this year than last year,” he wrote in a January email to FOS.

Now Mendoza is the No. 1 overall pick of the Las Vegas Raiders.

Walk the Plank

Here’s the part nobody’s talking about enough: the Raiders didn’t just draft a quarterback. They drafted a player who exists on this roster because Mark Cuban wrote a check.

Without that NIL money, Mendoza probably doesn’t leave Cal. He might not have won the Heisman. He might not have gone 16-0. He might not have been the first name called in 2026.

And the Raiders’ entire future at the position rests, in some small but real way, on a billionaire who used to talk basketball with a kid behind the Heat bench.

Cuban sold the Mavericks last year for $3.5 billion after 26 years. He’s not exactly hurting for cash. But even by his standards, this investment looks like an absolute layup — the kind of deal where you put up money, land a Heisman winner, and collect a national championship along the way.

The NFL is better when the college game matters. And right now, the Raiders are benefiting from a story that started in the transfer portal and ended in Sin City.