Mark Cuban had one of the biggest assists in Indiana’s run to the national championship.
In Dec. 2024, Cuban, one of the Hoosier’s wealthiest alumni, was at IU’s first-round College Football Playoff game against Notre Dame, which the Fighting Irish won 27-17 . In the middle of the game, the former Mavericks majority owner found himself talking to athletic director Scott Dolson, a fellow IU alum, and university president, Pam Whitten.
The conversation would lead to Cuban opening his wallet for the most important player in program history: Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback Fernando Mendoza
“The first thing I said to Scott was, ‘Well, at least this year you’re not having to look for another football coach,’” Cuban told FOS in a forthcoming episode of Portfolio Players. “Because that was kind of a time-honored tradition in Indiana, always looking for a football coach. And so he’s like, ‘Yeah, that’s the positive.’”
Until then, Cuban, who is worth $6 billion, according to Forbes, had never donated to IU athletics. His charity strictly focused on academics. That’s when Dolson made his pitch to Cuban to change that.
“[Dolson]’s like, we’ve got this quarterback that we really, really like that we think would be great in Cig’s system, we just need a litttttle bit more,” Cuban recalled. “I’m like, ‘How much is a little bit?’ And so 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.’”
It didn’t hurt that both Cuban and IU coach Curt Cignetti both hail from Pittsburgh and are just three years apart. Cuban was also familiar with Mendoza’s family, as Fernando’s younger brother, Alberto, used to interact with Cuban at Heat games when they were facing the Mavericks.
“I knew [Alberto] who was already on the team, was a Heat fan and he would sit behind the Miami bench, and when I would come to go to Mavs-Heat games, he was like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m go to IU and da da da,’” Cuban said. “So we met. And so I’m like, OK, I’ll put up the money, and we can go get Fernando, and the rest is history.”
Cuban has never disclosed how much he’s given to Indiana for NIL, other than saying he increased his amount this past season amid IU’s 16–0 season that ended with a victory over Miami for the program’s first national championship.
“Let’s just say they are happier this year than last year,” Cuban wrote in a January email to FOS.
Mendoza was reportedly making $1.6 million in his final season at California in 2024, before netting $2.6 million to transfer to IU, according to Yahoo Sports. In addition to winning the Heisman Trophy, he led the Hoosiers to the national championship in his lone season in Bloomington. Last month, the Raiders selected him with the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft.
Cuban reiterated that he doesn’t donate with specifications and instead lets Dolson decide where it’s best used.
“I just give Scott money and it’s up to him,” Cuban said. “We talk a lot, we talk about approach, understanding how to put together a team. Because I did it for 20-something years. So it’s not like I have to direct him to something specific. I understand how they’re approaching things.”
