Indiana quarterback Fernando Mendoza had already emerged as the clear favorite for the Heisman Trophy after taking home both the Maxwell and Davey O’Brien awards on the eve of the ceremony. Fast forward to now, and here we are. The projected top prospect for the 2026 NFL Draft has officially been named the 91st winner of the Heisman Memorial Trophy. The votes may be in, but for a legend and the Sanders family, the ceremony ended with the wrong man at the podium.

Shortly after the announcement, NFL legend Johnny Manziel took to his X account and posted “PAVIA 4 Heisman,” making it clear he would’ve preferred Diego Pavia as the winner. Not long after that, Deion Sanders Jr. liked Manziel’s post, took a screenshot, and reposted it on his Instagram page, Well Off Forever.

“I agree,” he captioned, adding another layer to the reaction from Shedeur Sanders’ side of the circle.

But when you look at the numbers, the outcome becomes easier to understand. Mendoza finished with 2,362 points, including 643 first-place votes, while Vanderbilt quarterback Pavia ended up as the runner-up with 1,435 points. There’s a reason for that gap. After transferring from California, Mendoza guided Indiana to a perfect 13–0 season, capped it with a 2025 Big Ten Championship win over Ohio State, and secured a No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff.

Along the way, he swept the 2025 Big Ten Offensive Player of the Year and Quarterback of the Year honors. The QB completed 226 of 316 passes for 2,980 yards and a nation-leading 33 touchdown throws. He also added 240 rushing yards and six more scores. Even so, plenty of voices still aren’t sold on him winning college football’s biggest award. And it’s not just Shedeur Sanders’ brother. Skip Bayless has also gone on record saying Pavia should’ve taken home the trophy.

“Congrats to Fernando Mendoza… nice memorized, rehearsed speech… but Diego Pavia deserved this award for his performance on the field, even if his swagger and edge rubbed some voters and viewers the wrong way,” Bayless wrote.

Looking at it all, it’s pretty clear that Mendoza winning the 2025 Heisman has split the football world right down the middle. And that naturally raises the question: Why did this decision spark so much debate?

Fernando Mendoza and Diego Pavia’s case to win the Heisman

“At the end of the day, I did everything that I can do to win the award,” Pavia said before the ceremony. “It ain’t up to me. There’s no game that I can play. There’s no result that can happen that I can influence to win the award. It’s all up to someone else. There’s nothing you really can do.”

Still, Mendoza’s Heisman win and Pavia’s finishing as a runner-up have sparked a debate about who deserved to win. If we look at Mendoza’s case, he comfortably won the voting from all six geographic regions into which voting is divided, thanks to a big performance throughout the season. However, critics argued about who those big performances were against.

The Penn State team he rallied past had already fallen apart, fired its coach, and finished just 6–6. Mendoza also only beat two teams that are currently ranked. And while both Oregon and Ohio State are elite programs, those wins weren’t offensive showcases. In those two games combined, he threw just two touchdowns, with the defense doing most of the heavy lifting.

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Pavia, to be fair, put together a strong case of his own. He led Vanderbilt to 10 wins for the first time in program history. He threw for 3,192 yards and 27 touchdowns while adding 826 rushing yards and nine more scores on the ground. Just a year earlier, he had already helped lift the program to seven wins, so the upward trajectory was clear. Where Pavia’s case really took a hit, though, was context, not effort or production.

Vanderbilt simply didn’t have a true, season-defining win this year. Based on the current rankings, their best victory came against No. 25 Missouri. It didn’t carry the same weight as knocking off a top-five opponent. And when the competition got tougher, his numbers dipped. Just six TDs to four picks against winning FBS teams.

Add in the fact that Vanderbilt narrowly missed the College Football Playoff, and the picture becomes clearer. That’s why, despite arguments from Deion Sanders Jr. and Skip Bayless that Pavia deserved it, the voters ultimately sided with Fernando Mendoza.