With a few games left in the 2025 College Football (CFB) season, teams are preparing to make a run for the College Football National Championship. There have been many standout players across the country who could win the prestigious Heisman award, which is given to the best player in the NCAA Division 1 Football. Last year, we saw a two-man race between Colorado Buffaloes Wide Receiver/Cornerback Travis Hunter and former Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty. Both players had historic seasons, but Hunter ended up coming out on top, receiving 93.03% of the votes. This year, there is a three-man race between Indiana QB Fernando Mendoza, Alabama QB Ty Simpson, and Ohio State QB Julian Sayin.
Sayin is currently the favorite to win the award. Sayin took over the starting QB position this season from Will Howard after he led Ohio State to winning the National Championship. Despite his early-season struggles, Sayin has managed to lead Ohio State to an undefeated season and the number one ranking in all of NCAA Division 1 Football with four games remaining in the regular season. The hardest game remaining on Ohio State’s schedule is the last game of the season against the 21st-ranked team, Michigan. Ohio State is on pace to finish in first place in the BIG TEN and have the opportunity to face Indiana and fellow Heisman Candidate Fernando Mendoza in the BIG TEN Championship.
Fernando Mendoza was a three-star QB prospect coming out of Florida. Mendoza started his College career off at Cal Berkley; however, Mendoza would not see the field until week 6 of the 2023 season. In the 2024 CFB season, Mendoza led the Golden Bears to their first bowl game since 2011. After Indiana made the College Football Playoffs for the first time in their program’s history, their starting QB Kurtis Rourke declared for the 2025 NFL draft, forcing head coach Kurt Cignetti to find his successor. In December of 2024, Mendoza entered the transfer portal as the 4th-best transfer QB in the 2025 transfer portal, where he ended up transferring to Indiana. Since then, Mendoza has been putting up similar numbers to Julian Sayin, and is expected to be the first Quarterback off the board in the 2026 NFL draft if teams are not as impressed with Alabama QB Ty Simpson.
Like Sayin, Simpson took over the starting role from Jalen Milroe, who was the last starting Quarterback under the Nick Saban era of Alabama football. Despite dropping their first game to an unranked Florida State team, Simpson has led the Crimson Tide to a 7-game win streak, defeating some top-ranked teams like Vanderbilt, LSU, and Tennessee. While Simpson lost his recent matchup against Oklahoma, he is still putting up a Heisman-worthy season against tough SEC opponents.
There have also been many underdog candidates thrown around, like Georgia Tech’s Haynes King, who has led them to first place in the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC), and Texas A&M’s Marcel Reed, who has been rising up the rankings after Alabama’s loss to Oklahoma. Senior Jayden Zamora says that “Julian Sayin is going to win the Heisman and there really is no competition. Mendoza is putting up good numbers, but the only real competition he has faced was Oregon, while Ohio State had to face some of the best SEC teams like Texas.”
The Heisman football race is an important part of American sports history because it showcases who the best player in College Football is. Many of the people who have gone on to win the Heisman have had successful careers in the NFL. It also gives colleges bragging rights that they had the best player in all of College Football.