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Rice is the first-ever Scarlet Knights player to win the national award ATLANTA, Sept. 7 /PRNewswire/ -- College football fans have cast their votes and the Cingular All-America Player of the Week, the only major college football award chosen exclusively by the fans, has a first-time winner. Rutgers University sophomore running back Ray Rice claimed the honor today after rushing for 201 yards and a career-high three touchdowns in the Scarlet Knights' 21-16 win over North Carolina last Saturday. Rice received 32% of the votes to beat out West Virginia University running back Steve Slaton (29%), University of Tennessee wide receiver Robert Meachem (24%) and UCLA quarterback Ben Olson (15%). Each of the players was nominated for this week's award by a panel of ESPN college football analysts based on their outstanding performances last weekend. In addition to being the first Rutgers player to ever be nominated for the Cingular All-America Player of the Week, Rice is the first Big East player to win the award in its three-year history. Fans can register to vote for the Cingular All-America Player of the Week throughout the season by text messaging "VOTE" to "87654" on their wireless phone. The four candidates for the award are revealed each Sunday on the 9 a.m. ESPN "SportsCenter", via text message alerts and on the Web at http://www.espnallamerica.com/. Fans then have until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on the following Wednesday to participate in the voting. The winner is announced during ESPN's Thursday Night College Football Game. Fans can vote as many times as they like, with each vote counting as one entry into a sweepstakes to win a trip to the 2007 BCS National Championship game in Glendale, Ariz. Cingular customers can visit Cingular's wireless NCAA(R) Football Portal on their handset to view video highlights of each week's candidates, retrieve photos, check scoreboards, track their favorite teams and download school ringtones. In December, four finalists for the Cingular All-America Player of the Year award will be announced during a one-hour special on ABC Sports when the Football Writers Association of America All-America team will also be announced. Fans will then get a chance to say who the best player in the nation is by voting for the Cingular All-America Player of the Year up until the Bowl Championship Series. The selection process will culminate during the BCS National Championship game on FOX when the Cingular All-America Player of the Year will be presented. Last year, University of Texas quarterback Vince Young was crowned as the Cingular All-America Player of the Year, beating out USC teammates Reggie Bush and Matt Leinart and University of Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn. He was the second Longhorn to claim the award, after running back Cedric Benson won the inaugural honor in 2004. About Cingular Wireless Cingular Wireless is the largest wireless carrier in the United States, serving 57.3 million customers. Cingular, a joint venture between AT&T Inc. (NYSE:T) and BellSouth Corporation (NYSE:BLS), has the largest digital voice and data network in the nation -- the ALLOVER(TM) network -- and the largest mobile-to-mobile community of any national wireless carrier. Cingular is a leader in third generation wireless technology. Its 3G network is the first widely available service in the world to use HSDPA (High Speed Downlink Packet Access) technology. Cingular is the only U.S. wireless carrier to offer Rollover(R), the wireless plan that lets customers keep their unused monthly minutes. Details of the company are available at http://www.cingular.com/. Get Cingular Wireless press releases emailed to you automatically. Sign up at http://cingular.mediaroom.com/. DATASOURCE: Cingular Wireless CONTACT: Bates Grainger of Career Sports & Entertainment for Cingular Wireless, +1-770-331-6617, or , or Clay Owen of Cingular Wireless, +1-404-236-6153, or Web site: http://www.cingular.com/ http://www.espnallamerica.com/

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