Fernando Mendoza named Indiana’s First Heisman Trophy Winner Indiana football history was made on Saturday night in New York City as Indiana redshirt-junior quarterback Fernando Mendoza was named the 91st winner of the Heisman Trophy by the Heisman Trophy Trust. Mendoza was presented with the award by Chris Fowler on ABC’s presentation of the ceremony from Jazz at Lincoln Center’s Appel Room in New York City. Mendoza became the first Heisman Trophy winner from a Big Ten institution since Ohio State quarterback Troy Smith won in 2006. Other finalists for the trophy included Notre Dame running back Jeremiyah Love, Vanderbilt quarterback Diego Pavia and Ohio State quarterback Julian Sayin. The only other Heisman Trophy finalist from Indiana was Anthony Thompson, who was the runner-up in 1989. Other Hoosier top 10 finishers in the Heisman Trophy voting include Bill Hillenbrand (1942), Vaughn Dunbar (1991), Antwaan Randle El (2001), Tevin Coleman (2014) and Kurtis Rourke (2024).
In addition to the Heisman Trophy, Mendoza has been recognized as the winner of the Davey O’Brien Award, Maxwell Award, the Walter Camp Player of the Year, Big Ten Graham-George Offensive Player of the Year, Griese-Brees Quarterback of the Year, and the AP College Football National Player of the Year. He has also been named a First Team All-American by The Athletic, Pro Football Focus, Sports Illustrated and is a 2025 All-Big Ten First Team honoree, among other accolades. Mendoza currently leads the nation in passing touchdowns (33) and is the Power 4 leader in touchdowns responsible for (39). He is the third Big Ten quarterback since 2000 with three-straight games of at least four passing touchdowns and zero interceptions – C.J. Stroud (Ohio State; 2021) and Kyle Orton (Purdue; 2004, four straight). The Miami, Florida, native is the only FBS quarterback since at least 1996 with multiple games of at least 90 percent completion and four touchdown passes versus Power 4 opponents.
In 2025, Mendoza is the lone FBS quarterback with five games of 4-plus touchdown passes and zero interceptions and entered Championship Week as the FBS leader in percentage of passes that result in a touchdown at 10.9%, over one point higher than the next closest passer (Julian Sayin, Ohio State; 9.2%). He has thrown a touchdown pass in 12-straight games entering the College Football Playoff and has five games with both a passing and rushing touchdown in 2025. He has thrown 33 touchdowns to just six interceptions, is tied for No. 2 on the team with six rushing touchdowns and has 240 yards rushing on the season. The Hoosiers earned the No. 1 spot in the College Football Playoff and will play the winner of Alabama/Oklahoma in the Rose Bowl Game on Jan. 1, 2026. The game from Rose Bowl Stadium will kick at 4 p.m. ET.
Kentucky Protects Home Court against Indiana University Men’s Basketball The Kentucky Wildcats beat the Indiana Hoosiers 72-60 Saturday Night in Rupp Arena in Lexington Kentucky as one of College Basketball’s top rivalries renewed for the first regular season meeting since 2011. Kentucky has won four in a row against the Hoosiers in Lexington since Indiana beat Kentucky 75-52 on December 20, 1988, as the Hoosiers drop to 3-9 all time against the Wildcats in Lexington and 25-33 overall as the this was the first meeting at Rupp Arena between the border rivals since 2010. Kentucky is 7-4 on the season and 7-1 at Rupp Arena this season. Kentucky’s four losses have come to four ranked teams Michigan State, Louisville, North Carolina and Gonzaga. Mouhamed Dioubate scored 14 points, and Jaland Lowe scored 13 points off the bench as the Wildcats scored 42 of the teams 72 points off the bench. Otega Oweh scored 10 points as the Wildcats put three in double figures. Kentucky finished the game 22-58 for 38% from the field, 3-15 from three-point range for 20% and 25-38 from the free throw line for 68%. Kentucky pulled down 34 rebounds as Dioubate pulled down 12 for a double double. The Wildcats had 13 steals, 10 assists, 4 blocks and committed 4 turnovers.
Lamar Wilkerson and Tucker DeVries lead Indiana with 15 points each as Tayton Conerway added 11 points. Nick Dorn added 7 points as Sam Alexis and Trent Sisley scored 6 points each for the Hoosiers as they were six of the 11 eleven Hoosiers that scored in the game. Indiana finished 15-44 from the field for 34%, 4-24 from three-point range for 17% and 26-29 from the free throw line for 90%. The Hoosiers pulled down 37 rebounds, 8 assists, 3 blocks, 2 steals and committed 18 turnovers. The Hoosiers led 39-32 at halftime as Sam Alexis was shaken up early in the game and was helped off the floor but was able to come back a few minutes later. Kentucky outscored the Hoosiers 40-21 in the second half as Hoosiers were not hitting the outside shot and Kentucky was playing inspired with the sold-out crowd of 20,061 at Rupp Arena behind them. Indiana is 8-3 on the season and 1-3 away from Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall including 0-2 in true road games. The Hoosiers will host Chicago State Next Saturday at 1 PM.
Indiana University Women’s Basketball Continues Homestand hosting Eastern Michigan The Indiana Hoosiers host Eastern Michigan Eagles this afternoon at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall at 1 PM with the game streaming on Big Ten Network Plus. This is the second of a five game homestand for the Hoosiers that will keep in Bloomington for the rest of the 2025 calendar year. Indiana is 9-2 on the season and 6-0 at home after a 98-54 win over Louisiana-Monroe Thursday Night. Shay Ciezki led the Hoosiers with 31 points. Freshman Maya Makalusky started her first career game scoring 22 points on 8-12 form the field and 6-10 from three-point range. The Fishers native played 34 minutes pulling down 4 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 steals and a block. Lenne Beaumont scored 18 points, and Edessa Noyan scored 8 points and pulled down 9 rebounds. The Hoosiers knocked down a season high 13 triples and had 20 assists. All Nine Hoosiers that played against Louisiana-Monroe scored as the Hoosiers were without Zania Socka-Nguemen, Jerni Kiaku and Faith Wiseman. Socka-Nguemen is week to week with a lower leg injury. Kikau was sick with the flu and is expected to return today and Wiseman suffered a Hit to her jaw and is not expected to return for this game and it’s unclear how long she could be out for.
Shay Ciezki is averaging 24.9 points and 1.4 steals per game to lead the Hoosiers. The Buffalo, New York Native has scored 274 points, pulled down 45 rebounds, dished out 33 assists and 15 steals while averaging 34.8 minutes per game. Lenee Beaumont averages 15.2 points and leads the Hoosiers with 3.4 assists per game. Edessa Noyan is leading the team with 5.3 rebounds and 0.5 blocks while averaging 5.2 points per game. The Hoosiers average 76 points and commit 14.3 turnovers per game. Indiana is shooting 48 percent from the field, 37 percent from three-point range and 78 percent from the free throw line. Head Coach Teri Moren is 255-114 in her 12th season at IU and 454-244 in 23 seasons overall.
Eastern Michigan makes their second trip to Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall and first since a 56-42 Hoosier Victory on December 18, 2004. Indiana beat Eastern Michigan 70-64 in Ypsilanti, Michigan on December 7, 2005, which was the last time these two programs met on the hardwood. Eastern Michigan is 6-3 on the season and comes to Bloomington on a four-game winning streak. The Eagles are 3-3 on the road and 3-0 at home. Eastern Michigan lost to Louisiana-Monroe 80-71, Michigan State 92-60 and Purdue Fort Wayne 67-52. The Eagles have beaten Canisius, St Thomas Minnesota and Detroit Mercy on the road along with home wins over Robert Morris, Defiance and Duquesne.
Sisi Elko leads Eastern Michigan with 17.4 points and 10.4 rebounds per game. The 6-2 Senior from Montreal, Quebec, Canada had posted six double-doubles this season including the last two games. Elko scored 19 points and pulled down 11 rebounds against Defiance and 23 points and 11 rebounds against Duquesne. Elko had 24 points in the season opener at Louisiana-Monroe and pulled down 14 rebounds against Robert Morris on November 26. Peyton Hill averages 12.8 points per game. Anihoa Cea leads the Eagles with 5.7 assists and 2.3 steals along with 6.1 points per game. Brooklyn Trash leads the team with 0.7 blocks while averaging 7.6 points and 3.8 rebounds per game. Eastern Michigan averages 67 points and commits 18.7 points turnovers per game. The Eagles shoot 41 percent from the field, 27 percent from three-point range and 80 percent from the free throw line. Eastern Michigan has a 15-player roster that represents Michigan, Ohio, Missouri, Spain, Australia, Greece, Canada, Chile and Poland. 7 of the 15 players are from outside the United States. There are 4 Seniors, 2 Juniors, 2 Sophomores and 7 Freshmen on this year’s team.
Head Coach Sahar Nusseibeh is in her second season at Eastern Michigan with a record of 8-30 after a 2-27 season last year. Nusseibeh coached three years at Canisius for three seasons with a 32-60 record and is 40-90 in five seasons overall. The 38-year-old is from Uniontown, Ohio and Graduated from North Canton HS and played at American University in Washington DC from 2005-09. Nusseibeh was a graduate assistant at the University of Cincinnati from 2009-11, Assistant Head Coach at Holy Cross 2011-13, Bowling Green 2013-16 and Miami Ohio form 2019-21. Nusseibeh was the associate Head Coach at Manhattan from 2016-19.
No. 24 Indiana University Wrestling Handles No. 27 Army at Wilkinson Hall After being tied at 9-9 at intermission, No. 24 Indiana won four of its last five bouts to pull ahead and defeat No. 27 Army, 26-14, at Wilkinson Hall on Saturday afternoon. The Hoosiers won six of 10 bouts to mark their third-straight victory and improve their season record to 5-1. Indiana got off to a fast start when No. 14 Jacob Moran (125) put on a takedown clinic in a 22-6 tech fall (5:47) win over Charlie Farmer to put Indiana up 5-0. Army responded with wins in the three of the next four bouts, all by decision. In the middle of that stretch Joey Buttler (149) won by major decision, 11-1, against Mason Barvitskie.
With Indiana’s two bonus-point victories and Army’s three decisions, the team score was tied at 9-9 at intermission. No. 19 Tyler Lillard (165) worked a fall in five minutes over Dakota Morris to put Indiana up 15-9 after intermission. No. 30 Derek Gilcher (174) didn’t allow any attacks to get close in a 7-2 decision win over Cooper Haase. The Hoosiers got back-to-back major decisions from No. 14 Sam Goin (184) and No. 13 Gabe Sollars (197) to put the team score at a commanding, 26-9, before the heavyweight bout. Moran improved his season record to an unblemished 9-0. Lillard’s fall was his second of the season.
Three of Sollars’ four wins this season have been bonus-point victories. Indiana and Army met for the first time since 1930, when the Hoosiers won 26-6 over the Black Knights on Jan. 18. The 5-1 record marks Indiana’s first 5-1 start to a season since 2022-23 when the team went 6-1 to begin the campaign.
This was Indiana’s third home dual of the season, but first in Wilkinson Hall. The other two included a match against Central Michigan at Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall (Dec. 5) and against Columbia at nearby Edgewood High School (Nov. 14). Indiana will have the week off before traveling to the prestigious Ken Kraft Midlands Championships from Dec. 29-30 in Evanston, Ill.
#6 Purdue Men’s Basketball beats Marquette as Braden Smith reaches Milestone Oscar Cluff made all nine of his shots and finished with a season-high 22 points, and Braden Smith reached another milestone with 10 more assists Saturday to lead No. 6 Purdue past Marquette 79-59. It took Smith only 12 seconds to find Fletcher Loyer for a 3-pointer to become the second Division I men’s basketball player to join the 1,500-point, 850-assist, 550-rebound club. D.J. Cooper was the first to do it during his career at Ohio from 2009-13. Smith had seven points and five rebounds to increase his career numbers to 1,515 points, 859 assists and 759 rebounds. Cluff had 11 rebounds for his second straight double-double. Loyer scored 15 points. The Boilermakers (10-1, 2-0 Big Ten) have won two straight since an embarrassing 23-point home loss to then-No. 10 Iowa State last weekend.
Royce Parham had 19 points to lead Marquette (5-6), which lost for the second straight Saturday by 20 points. Chase Ross added 10 points for the Golden Eagles, who shot only 8% from the field and were a dismal 8 of 31 from 3-point range. The Boilermakers took control with a 12-0 run that gave them a 21-8 lead midway through the first half and then pulled away late in the half by scoring nine straight points to open up a 37-19 lead. Cluff helped put it away when he scored 13 consecutive points for Purdue early in the second half, a stretch then ended with the Boilermakers leading 53-29.
Phillip Rivers to Start for the Indianapolis Colts against the Seattle Seahawks 44-year-old Philip Rivers will be the Indianapolis Colts starting quarterback against the Seattle Seahawks this afternoon. According to multiple reports from ESPN and NFL Network, the Colts are activating Rivers to the 53-man roster and have given him the starting role, five years after playing his last NFL game. Rivers now becomes the oldest active player in the NFL. It also bumps Rivers’ Pro Football Hall of Fame eligibility to 2031. Rivers was a semi-finalist in his first year of eligibility this year.
The Colts added Rivers to the practice squad earlier this week after Daniel Jones sustained a season-ending Achilles injury during the first quarter of the game in Jacksonville last weekend. Backups Anthony Richardson and Riley Leonard are both also dealing with injuries. Richardson is still on injured reserve after fracturing his orbital lobe around his eye during a pregame warmup mishap earlier in the season. Leonard is dealing with a knee issue after coming in in relief of Jones against the Jaguars. Rivers last played for the Colts in 2020, leading Indy to its last playoff appearance. The 17-year veteran chose to retire from the NFL after losing in the Wild Card round to the Buffalo Bills in January 2021. The Colts kick off against the Seahawks at 4:25 p.m. today.