- - While Fernando Mendoza shines, brother Alberto stuck in NIL shuffle at Indiana

Matt Hayes, USA TODAYJanuary 18, 2026 at 8:08 AM

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MIAMI — He sat on a aluminum bleacher with the rest of the forgotten, a full-blown feeding frenzy unloading in front of him.

Everyone wanted a piece of Alberto Mendoza.

Meanwhile, a larger hoard of media — one not seen at College Football Playoff media day in maybe ever — was hovering around Fernando Mendoza while he sat surrounded at a podium for the elite.

You know him.

Heisman Trophy winner. Star quarterback. The key to Indiana completing the greatest turnaround in sports history Monday night against Miami in the College Football Playoff championship game. As pure and true since a guy named Tebow.

And the older brother of Alberto, Indiana’s backup quarterback. The guy hanging with the other backups in the bleachers.

Indiana quarterback Alberto Mendoza (16) talks to reporters during media day for the 2025 College Football Playoff national championship game at Miami Beach Convention Center.

This is where the story begins, where a brother trying to find his own way in a sport he loves, dutifully and unflinchingly sitting for an hour — an hour! — and answering questions about the one player in college football everyone can’t get enough of.

Is Fernando really as perfect as he looks?

Was Fernando always great at sports?

If Fernando were an animal in the jungle, what would he be?

But while the deeply vacuous wondered and wandered aloud in the annual menagerie that is CFP media day, an important thing happened to Alberto a couple of weeks ago.

Indiana coach Curt Cignetti signed TCU quarterback Josh Hoover from the transfer portal for the 2026 season. About as clear a statement as can be made about the future of Alberto.

The Hoosiers aren’t paying Hoover millions to leave TCU so he can decide a year from now if Alberto is a Tiger or Lion in the jungle. And it’s here where we find the cold, hard truth of the sport.

There’s a finite clock for starting quarterbacks in the NIL era. Teams and coaches don’t have time to invest two or three years of development.

High-value contracts are made for now, not when it all finally comes together.

“I get it,” Alberto says. “It’s a business.”

That doesn’t make it any easier to swallow the reality that he’s a play away from critical minutes against Miami — and who knows how long from becoming the Indiana starter.

He already convinced one NIL gun for hire (see: Fernando) to skip in line ahead of him. He’s not sitting around and letting it happen a second time — or worse, leaving town because of it.

Mendoza says he will compete with Hoover for the starting job, and says Fernando told him to go win the job instead of waiting. Force Indiana and Cignetti into a difficult decision.

Cignetti, meanwhile, understands the complexities of the situation. It’s a small and growing sample size of the undeniable: inexperienced quarterbacks rarely work in the NIL era.

The surest, safest way to efficient play from the most important position on the field has quickly become the transfer portal.

Doesn’t matter that Alberto led Christopher Columbus High School in Miami to back-to-back state titles once Fernando left. Doesn’t matter that Alberto brings something different to the offense — his ability to stress defenses with his legs — and has shown rare dual-threat ability in limited backup action this season.

All that matters is the here and now. There’s a reason more than 200 Bowl Subdivision (and another 100 Championship Subdivision) quarterbacks hit the transfer portal when it opened on January 2.

It’s all about the quick fix, with the least amount of the unknown.

“We’ll see what happens,” Cignetti said. “I like (Alberto) a lot as a player. We’ll see what the future holds.”

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There was a moment last month, in what was then the biggest game of the season, that we nearly saw what Indiana had with Alberto. Fernando was drilled by Ohio State edge Caden Curry on the first play of the Big Ten championship game, and Alberto replaced him for a play.

His first significant snap of the season, and Alberto handed off. But it’s not like he hasn’t shown it this season.

His numbers are high level, even in mop up time. He plays the part well, with five touchdown passes and runs of 59, 53 and 39 yards.

He’s not just a guy with clipboard.

“You get me out there, I can rip it,” Alberto says. “I’m very confident in my ability.”

Meanwhile, back at the circus, the bobblehead bunch is busy asking about six-seven, and if Alberto and Fernando fought as kids.

Last one from me! Wait, what was I going to ask you again? Oh yeah, social media is ablaze with 2016. What were you doing in 2016?!

“I was, like, 12,” Alberto says.

And just for the record, yeah, they did fight as kids. And yeah, there were times when Alberto got the better of Fernando playing sports.

The last thing he’s going to do is let a high-dollar mercenary run him out of Bloomington. So here’s a better question for the wandering, vacuous masses:

What if Alberto wins the job, and a multi-million dollar contract sits on the bench?

Guess who then becomes the story of college football?

For all the right reasons.

Matt Hayes is the senior national college football writer for USA TODAY Sports Network. Follow him on X at @MattHayesCFB.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Fernando Mendoza's brother Alberto fighting for Indiana quarterback job

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