Sports and sports news go beyond the score: there’s always something going on in the stands, on the bench, and on the field. This column looks beyond the score so that you can learn more about your favorite leagues and athletes.
IU wins the College Football Championship
Rounding out the 2025 college football season, the Indiana University Hoosiers (IU) beat the University of Miami (UM) 27-21 at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Florida.
This highly anticipated championship saw IU at the end of a legendary playoff run, despite its past as one of the worst college football programs in history. Following a highly successful hiring of college football legend Curt Cignetti, the IU team hit a complete U-turn, leading them onto what has proven to be an extremely successful season.
As the starting quarterback for IU, Fernando Mendoza was already touted as a national sweetheart before the playoffs, known for his skill, attitude, and LinkedIn prowess.
Coming off a Heisman trophy win in December, Mendoza’s support exploded. This loyal fanbase followed Mendoza and the IU team into Hard Rock Stadium, leaving the home stadium packed with the red and white jerseys of IU.
Mendoza came into this game with some history with UM, having dreamed of playing for them after a childhood in Miami. As a freshman, opportunity instead found him at the University of California at Berkeley, before he transferred to join IU in 2025.
At the conclusion of the game, those Miami roots were on full display, as a packed crowd dressed in the jersey of the away team serenaded the Hoosiers and Mendoza with “Fernando” by ABBA. Surrounded by family, friends, and fans, Mendoza expressed gratitude to everyone who helped the Hoosiers make history.
Trinity Rodman’s Special Player Deal
Trinity Rodman, forward position for the Washington Spirit, has made history in the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL). One major issue with women’s sports leagues in the U.S. has been the disproportionately low pay that they are offered. Whether because of league rules or lack of funding, women’s sports have struggled to pay their best players as much as they’re worth.
The NWSL isn’t an exception to this rule, with a salary cap of 3.5 million dollars per team expected to be split amongst the entire roster. The main competitor to the NWSL, the British Women’s Super League (WSL), hasn’t introduced a hard salary cap for its teams, instead basing maximum spending on a portion of revenue.
This difference in available funds has led to many leading American players flying across the pond for the better salary and other benefits the WSL has to offer. Recently, U.S. national team players Naomi Girma and Alyssa Thompson joined Chelsea for record-breaking pay raises.
With superstar Rodman looking to resign with the Washington Spirit before the onset of the 2026 NWSL season, coaches and fans alike are worried about how to keep her from heading overseas for what looked like an extreme pay raise.
While initial deals between Rodman and Washington were shut down by the NWSL, fans and league officials wrestled with the heavy implications of letting another one of the biggest American women’s soccer stars walk away solely based on salary and looked to work with players and teams to figure out a solution.
This has introduced us to what we now know as the “Rodman Rule” or the High Impact Player Mechanism. Put simply, this rule allows teams to exceed the league salary cap for those defined as high-impact players by either accepted subjective rankings of players or by meeting set performance expectations.
Since the rule became official, many have shown disdain for the deal, arguing for good-faith negotiations with players, despite their supposed impact. With around 30 of the NWSL’s current players meeting these criteria, it’s anyone’s guess how other teams will follow the “Rodman Rule,” or what the outcomes of filed grievances may be.
Defied expectations are part of what makes us love sports and all the ways athletes can prove to fans and themselves that they’re capable of so much. Paving the way for the players coming after them, Rodman and Mendoza have used their impact and skills to change the organizations they interact with in powerful ways.
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