With Porsche in tow, Will Anderson is capitalizing on NIL

Will Anderson is done hitting the pause button on NIL activity.

The Alabama star linebacker saw teammate after teammate cash in last season. Bryce Young reportedly signed more than $800,000 in deals before the start of the 2021 season. Jameson Williams inked a partnership with Bose ahead of the College Football Playoff.

No longer is the most dominant defender in college football watching from the sidelines. Last fall, he made clear that NIL deals were off the table until after the season. No more.

Talking with the media on Tuesday in Atlanta at SEC Media Days, Anderson confirmed he has been executing NIL deals in the offseason. His current On3 NIL Valuation is $1.3 million, which places him in the top 15 of the NIL 100.

“(It’s changed my life) a lot,” Anderson said. “It’s been able to help me and my family, and I feel like right now I put money aside for, of course, myself, but I really am doing NIL to help my family a lot. I don’t want my parents to have to be stressed and worried about how they’re going to get to my games, any of that stuff like that. So to be able to take care of all that and to help them out to make sure that they’re living well enough to balance everything out has been great.”

Earlier this month on Atlanta’s 92.9 The Game, he said he has been driving a 2021 Porsche Cayenne GTS. The current resale value of the car is $120,000.

“It’s smooth,” he said.

Will Anderson using A3 to build brand, assist college athletes

Anderson’s comments came on the same day Alabama head coach Nick Saban toted at SEC Media Days that his team players made $3 million in NIL in 2021. With many draft experts believing the Alabama star linebacker will be the first defensive player taken off the board in the 2023 NFL Draft, he’s not waiting to start building his brand.

Earlier this month on The Paul Finebaum Show, he discussed the formation of A3 Athletes, or Athletes 3.0, a brand the linebacker said he created to help other athletes navigate the complex NIL landscape. He’s also received help from with Brian Jones, Kenyan Drake and Dwight Johnson.

“I know during the season, I told you guys I wasn’t going to be doing any deals, but I actually just started my own brand and it’s called A3 Athletes,” Anderson said Tuesday. “I take control of my own brand, you know, with the whole NIL thing. It was kind of overwhelming at first because you don’t know a lot of the verbiage and terminology when it comes to deals.

“So with this A3 Athletes, it’s going to help players such as myself or younger players under me come together with my advisory team or with people on my team and help go over contracts. Go over those different things to take the load off for you and your family to read over everything that’s going on.”

NIL oversight the talk of SEC Media Days

The focus on players utilizing NIL, however, has been overshadowed by larger NIL topics at SEC Media Days. SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey spent time in his opening remarks to call for oversight from Congress, which is something that is likely nowhere near the top of the agenda in Washington, D.C.

“It’s a difficult issue, subject to the onset of state laws that came into effect last July, and since that time some of those same states have pulled back from those laws because it’s in the state’s competitive interest to do so,” Sankey said. “It’s exactly what we warned about dating back to 2019; that a patchwork of state laws was the most ineffective way to approach name, image and likeness.”

And while Saban continues to discuss his team’s NIL success, there’s little doubt that he wants more oversight. Taking questions from the media on Tuesday, Saban yet again discussed the need for legislation.

Circling back to his comments made this spring about the role of inducements in recruiting and the transfer portal, the seven-time national champion head coach pointed the finger at the lack of enforcement.

“On the recruiting trail right now, there’s a lot of people using this as inducements to go to their school by making promises as to whether they may or may not be able to keep in terms of what players are doing,” he said.

Will Anderson’s focus is NFL over NIL

Through it all, Will Anderson’s focus is still on football. He’s bulked up, closer to 250 pounds now from his previous weight of 243 pounds. And he is aware that the signing bonus he will receive in the NFL will dwarf whatever he earns in NIL money.

Saban raved about Anderson on Tuesday. The linebacker ranks third in Alabama history in single-season sacks with 17.5 in 2021 and he’s fourth on the career list with 24.5, needing just 4.5 to reach second.

He is driven, too. The Crimson Tide fell just short of bringing home another national championship last season. Now it’s positioned to be one of Saban’s best teams yet. This fall could be the perfect culmination of Anderson’s tenure in Tuscaloosa.

But for now, that’s not going to hold back Will Anderson from taking advantage of the revamped college football landscape.