Fernando Mendoza spent time at both Cal and Indiana. He will not identify with one over the other.
However, the reigning Heisman Trophy winner is hard pressed not to consider the role of academics.
Although Mendoza played college football at both programs, he really only took classes at one. 2025 was a facade!
Fernando Mendoza played college football at two different schools.
As a native of Miami, Florida, Fernando Mendoza was rated as a two-star prospect in the recruiting Class of 2022. He received only six scholarship offers and ultimately chose Cal-Berkeley over Yale, Lehigh and Pennsylvania, among others. Notice how they are all strong academic institutes of higher learning. He’s a smart guy!
Mendoza took a redshirt in 2022. His first career start came in week six of 2023. The rest is history. Literally.
The Golden Bears went 9-10 during Mendoza’s first 19 games. A team that had not won more than five games in each of the previous three seasons went to back-to-back bowl games in each of the two years where Mendoza was the starter.
His biggest win at Cal came on the road at Auburn.
His most viral moment was a postgame interview after a win over Stanford in The Big Game.
And then it was off to the transfer portal!
Indiana added Mendoza during the offseason. The Hoosiers went undefeated 16-0 and won the first national championship in school history. Their quarterback won the Heisman Trophy. He was drafted No. 1 overall by the Las Vegas Raiders.
Does he claim Cal or Indiana?
The social media team in Las Vegas got in on the latest viral trend on TikTok where the admin asks the players to give a shoutout to their college rival’s school. For example, Jalen Nailor went to Michigan State. Admin asked him to give a shoutout to Michigan.
Because Indiana doesn’t really have a rival in football (Purdue, I know), the admin asked Fernando Mendoza to shoutout Stanford. He, of course, would not do so. And then the admin put him on the spot.
“Shoutout your actual college though!”
Mendoza could not compute. His brain was in a pretzel. He didn’t want to pick Cal over Indiana. He didn’t want to pick Indiana over Cal.
However, the 22-year-old was about to chose the Golden Bears over the Hoosiers before the video cut off.
His logic was simple! Mendoza earned his bachelor’s degree in business administration from the Haas School of Business. He took a few classes for sake of eligibility in Bloomington.
Although he did not give a definitive answer, Fernando Mendoza was going to claim Cal over Indiana if he was forced to choose. You heard it!