Fans can register to vote by text-messaging VOTE to 51234 from their wireless phones. The voting ends each week on Wednesday at 11:59 p.m. EST. Winners are announced the following day at halftime during the ESPN College Football Primetime Presented by Applebee's. Standard text-messaging rates apply.

At the end of the season, a panel of experts from ESPN will choose four finalists based on the players' outstanding performances. AT&T will reveal the four candidates at 9 a.m. EST each Sunday on ESPN's SportsCenter via text-message alerts and at www.espnallamerica.com.

AT&T will announce All-America Player of the Year Award finalists in December during a one-hour special on ESPN, along with the announcement of the AT&T ESPN All-America Team as selected by the Football Writers Association of America.

Fans then get another chance to cast a vote for the best player in the nation by voting for the AT&T All-America Player of the Year through the Bowl Championship Series (BCS). Voting ends at noon EST on Jan. 6, and winners will be announced during the BCS National Championship game on Fox on Jan. 9.

Each vote counts as one entry into a sweepstakes to win a trip to the 2009 BCS National Championship game in Miami.

"Text-messaging on a mobile phone is an intimate form of communication," says Amy Shea, EVP at marketing and branding firm Brand Keys. "We call the mobile phone the third screen. Marketers and advertisers are looking to reach in to put their brands alongside the consumer."

The ability to text-message has become a motivating factor for consumers when considering the mobile phone to buy. In fact, the tech feature has grown steadily in importance from 32% between October and December 2007 to 36% between January and June 2008, according to The NPD Group.

Text-messaging has grown in popularity so much so that Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama last week relied on the technology to announce his choice for the vice presidency. Collecting thousands of phone numbers and email addresses, he marketed to supporters the promise that they would become part of a historic moment.

Aside from the AT&T's text-messaging and sweepstakes, fans can view video highlights and photos of each week's candidates. Features like tracking their favorite teams through AT&T's wireless NCAA Football Portal are accessible on AT&T handsets by launching AT&T Media Net and clicking through to the sports category.

AT&T wireless customers with 3G handsets can also watch "Confessions of a College Football Junkie" video clips featuring Chris Fowler and Kirk Herbstreit by accessing ESPN on AT&T CV.

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