The NCAA, in conjunction with CBS and ESPN, has announced that Pontiac, through the General Motors Corporation, and Cingular Wireless have signed multiyear contracts to become NCAA corporate champions.

Pontiac and Cingular join Coca-Cola as participants in the enhanced corporate partnership program, which is administered by CBS Sports.

General Motors has participated in the NCAA corporate partner program since 1987. Cingular also returns to the NCAA program, having been an NCAA corporate partner since 2001.

"Pontiac's and Cingular's participation as NCAA corporate champions defines their commitment to supporting higher education and the academic and athletics endeavors of NCAA student-athletes," said NCAA President Myles Brand. "The NCAA and our corporate champions and partners, through their funding support, help to develop and provide the integration and balance that student-athletes achieve every day between academics and athletics."

Under the corporate champion agreement, Pontiac and Cingular will receive rights to use the NCAA marks; will support the NCAA's 87 championships in 22 sports through advertising, promotional initiatives and marketing programs; and will participate in on-site activities at numerous NCAA championships. Pontiac and Cingular also will align their promotions to support the NCAA's core values, including learning, balance, character, community, spirit and fair play.

In addition to television, radio and print advertising, one of Pontiac's planned promotions features the Men's Final Four.

Pontiac is giving NCAA basketball fans a chance to decide the 16 "High-Performance Plays of All-Time." Fans can log onto http://www.ncaasports.
com/pontiac and vote for the greatest moment in the history of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Championship. In a bracket-style format similar to the NCAA tournament, the all-time plays compete against each other with four rounds of elimination. Each week, fans can vote for their favorite play, and random winners will be selected to receive a variety of NCAA and Pontiac prizes.

Also during NCAA March Madness, Cingular and CBS SportsLine.com and CBS Sports are teaming to provide interactive polling. CBS Sports will display questions about college basketball, and fans will be able to respond via text messaging through their Cingular Wireless Service. The results will be presented back to the viewing audience in real time.

Cingular customers also will be able to receive game alerts and can download university fight song ringtones and college logos as screensavers for their phones.

The NCAA Corporate Champions Program is part of a comprehensive 11-year contract with CBS. CBS negotiates corporate champion agreements on behalf of the NCAA. The NCAA does not receive additional funds from these partnerships; instead, the money is paid to CBS as part of the NCAA/CBS agreement.

The Corporate Champions Program and the NCAA Corporate Partner Program differ from the NCAA's past structure. The Association is reducing the overall number of corporate supporters in the NCAA corporate marketing program, which now includes a tiered system, with the top tier being the champion level and the second tier the partner level.

More than 90 percent of the revenue generated from these rights acquired by CBS in the historic November 1999 bundled-rights agreement will go directly to NCAA member colleges and universities to fund student-athlete scholarships, on-campus athletics and educational programs, and support the schools as a whole.