Big Ten names its athletes of the year

(BIG TEN) – Indiana University football quarterback Fernando Mendoza has been selected as the 2025-26 Big Ten Conference Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year, and University of California, Los Angeles basketball center Lauren Betts has been recognized as the 2025-26 Big Ten Conference Female Athlete of the Year, the conference announced Wednesday.

Mendoza is the sixth Indiana student-athlete to earn the Big Ten Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year honor and the first since track and field student-athlete Derek Drouin in 2013. This is the second such honor for the Hoosiers’ football program, as Mendoza joins Anthony Thompson, who won the award in 1990.

Mendoza is the eighth football student-athlete to claim the honor, joining Iowa’s Chuck Long (1986), Thompson (1990), Michigan’s Desmond Howard (1992) and Charles Woodson (1998), Ohio State’s Eddie George (1996) and Chase Young (2020), and Wisconsin’s Ron Dayne (2000).

Betts becomes the first Big Ten Female Athlete of the Year award winner from UCLA and the 12^th basketball student-athlete to capture the honor.

Other basketball recipients have included Purdue’s Joy Holmes (1991), MaChelle Joseph (1992), Stephanie White (1999) and Katie Douglas (2001), Penn State’s Kelly Mazzante (2004), Ohio State’s Jessica Davenport (2007), Minnesota’s Rachel Banham (2016), Iowa’s Megan Gustafson (2019) and Caitlin Clark (2023, 2024), and USC’s JuJu Watkins (2025).

Mendoza led the Hoosiers to the first-ever 16-0 season in FBS history and Indiana’s first football national title during the 2025 season. The Miami native won the 2025 Heisman Trophy, the first player in program history to win the award and the first Big Ten player to receive the honor in 19 years. Following the campaign, Mendoza was taken as the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL Draft, a feat not accomplished by a Big Ten student-athlete in nearly 20 years.

With his selection atop the NFL Draft, he is just the fourth player in the common draft era, and first from the Big Ten, to go No. 1 overall, win the Heisman Trophy, and claim a national title in the same season. He is among a group that includes Joe Burrow (LSU, 2019), Jameis Winston (Florida State, 2013) and Cam Newton (2010, Auburn).

Mendoza led the FBS in passing touchdowns (41), passing efficiency (182.9) and points respon­sible for (288), behind an FBS-best 48 touchdowns accounted for. He was the only FBS quarterback with six games of four-plus touchdown passes and zero interceptions and accounted for at least one touchdown in all 16 games, including 14 with a touchdown pass.

Betts delivered one of the most dominant seasons in UCLA Bruins women’s basketball history, leading the program to its first NCAA Championship title. Anchoring the Bruins on both ends of the floor, Betts recorded 14 points and 11 rebounds in the national title game and was named the 2026 NCAA Final Four Most Outstanding Player.

Betts led the Bruins with 17.1 points and a Big Ten-best 8.8 rebounds per contest, as UCLA finished the season 37-1, including 18-0 in conference play. Betts became the third player in NCAA history to tally at least 600 points, 300 rebounds, 100 assists, and 75 blocks in a single season, joining Connecticut’s Breanna Stewart and USC’s Cheryl Miller. As one of 45 Division I women’s basketball players 6-foot-6 or taller to play at least 2,500 minutes since 2000, Betts is the only one to never foul out of a game.

The Bruin center was named the 2026 Big Ten Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, becoming the first player in conference history to claim both honors in the same season. Betts earned WBCA First Team All-America honors for the second time in her career and was named the Honda Sports Award winner for Basketball. The Centennial, Colo. native also collected her second Lisa Leslie Center of the Year Award, her third All-Big Ten First Team honor, and was named a finalist for the 2026 Wade Trophy, Naismith Trophy, and Wooden Award.

Mendoza and Betts were among a high-powered field of 36 nominees (one male and one female per Big Ten school) that included 16 national champions, 31 All-Americans, 16 conference champions, 19 conference players of the year, 14 standouts who collected at least one national player of the year accolade, and three Olympic gold medalists.

The Big Ten Conference has recognized a Jesse Owens Male Athlete of the Year since 1982 and first honored a Female Athlete of the Year in 1983. The Big Ten Athletes of the Year are selected by a panel of conference media members from nominations submitted by each institution.

The complete list of 2025-26 Athlete of the Year nominations, as well as the list of all-time winners for each award, can be found below.

2025-26 BIG TEN ATHLETE OF THE YEAR NOMINEES