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Award is the only major college football honor determined exclusively by fan voting ATLANTA, Oct. 22 /PRNewswire/ -- Four nominees for the Cingular All- America Player of the Week have been announced after the eighth weekend of college football action, and the power to determine a winner now rests solely in the hands of the fans. Brigham Young quarterback John Beck, Notre Dame quarterback Brady Quinn, Rutgers running back Ray Rice and Michigan State quarterback Drew Stanton have been selected by a panel of ESPN college football analysts as this week's top candidates based on their outstanding performances this weekend. Fans can determine the winner by text messaging "VOTE" to "87654" on their wireless phone and casting their votes for the nominees. Beck passed for 250 yards and four touchdowns and added another touchdown on the ground in BYU's 52-7 victory over UNLV. Beck, who completed 18 of 23 passes, had his second straight game with four touchdown passes. Quinn, a two-time winner of the Cingular All America Player of the Week in 2006, passed for 304 yards and two touchdowns to lead 10th-ranked Notre Dame to a 20-17 comeback win over UCLA. He completed a game-winning 45-yard touchdown pass with just 27 seconds left to give the Fighting Irish the victory. Rice, the week one winner of the Cingular All America Player of the Week, rushed for 225 yards and one touchdown in Rutgers' 20-10 win at Pittsburgh. Rice, who helped the 19th-ranked Scarlet Knights improve to 7-0 for the first time since 1976, has 1,124 yards rushing on the season. Stanton passed for 297 yards and two touchdowns in Michigan State's historic 41-38 comeback win over Northwestern. Trailing by a score of 38-3 midway through the third quarter, Stanton led the Spartans to 38 unanswered points and the largest comeback in NCAA Division I-A history. Fans have until 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday to submit their votes. The winner will be announced October 26 during ESPN's Thursday night college football game between Virginia Tech and Clemson. 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. The Cingular All-America Player of the Week program will continue throughout the season, with the nominees being revealed each Sunday on the 9 a.m. ESPN SportsCenter and on the Web at http://www.espnallamerica.com/. Cingular customers can visit Cingular's NCAA(R) Football Portal on their wireless handset to view video highlights of each week's candidates, retrieve photos, check scoreboards, track their favorite teams and download school ringtones. Rice, Quinn, Michigan wide receiver Mario Manningham, Georgia Tech wide receiver Calvin Johnson, Tennessee quarterback Erik Ainge and Texas quarterback Colt McCoy have won the Cingular All-America Player of the Week during the 2006 college football season. 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. 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: Chris Capo, Career Sports & Entertainment, +1-404-314-1635, ; or Clay Owen, Cingular Wireless, +1-404-236-6153, Web site: http://www.cingular.com/

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