DALLAS (FWAA) – AutoNation and the Football Writers Association of America (FWAA) are teaming up to announce the top offensive and defensive players and best team performance each week during the 2015 college football season. The program will be highlighted by the announcement of the 2015 AutoNation FWAA All-America Team at the inaugural AutoNation Cure Bowl on Dec. 19 in Orlando, Fla.

AutoNation is proud to partner with the FWAA in celebrating college football’s top players and teams. Weekly award nominations are received and voted on by the FWAA. The AutoNation FWAA National Team of the Week will be announced on Mondays at 4 p.m. ET, and both the AutoNation FWAA National Offensive Player of the Week and the AutoNation FWAA National Defensive Player of the Week will be announced on Tuesdays at 10 a.m. ET.

Reflective of the company’s history of philanthropic involvement, AutoNation will donate $1,000 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation (BCRF) in the name of each weekly award winner. This is part of a larger $1 million AutoNation charitable commitment to BCRF and the AutoNation Cure Bowl, a new post-season NCAA football game that kicks off bowl season and is aired on CBS Sports Network. The aptly named AutoNation Cure Bowl helps to raise essential research dollars for BCRF, the nation’s only breast cancer organization rated A+ by CharityWatch.

“We want to celebrate the very best of college football, while also helping to raise awareness for the importance of finding a cure for cancer,” says AutoNation CMO Marc Cannon. “This season-long partnership with the FWAA, leading up to the AutoNation Cure Bowl, puts a spotlight on a cause that we’re determined to tackle.”

“In our 75th season of existence, this a marvelous platform to get our players and the team of the week series excellent exposure as well as helping AutoNation in its effort to fight cancer and acknowledge deserving student-athletes,” said FWAA 2015 President Lee Barfknecht of the Omaha World-Herald. “It is very exciting to be able to help our organization as well as others in this splendid effort.”

The AutoNation FWAA weekly awards, which are determined collectively by a group of FWAA and present officers and the FWAA All-America Committee, have been in existence for several years, with the exception of the new AutoNation FWAA Offensive Player of the Week. Nominations are taken from the game performance all over the country each week and then those nominations are reviewed by the FWAA, which determines the actual winners.

AutoNation also is the new sponsor of the 2015 FWAA All-America Team, which will be comprised of 26 first-team and 26 second-team selections as voted upon by the membership and chosen by the FWAA All-America Committee. The AutoNation 2015 FWAA All-America Team will be announced at the AutoNation Cure Bowl. Coincidentally, in 2002 and 2003, FWAA All-America teams were honored on the floor of the very same Citrus Bowl Stadium. Over the years, the FWAA’s All-America teams have been honored in different locations and on various media platforms during the second-longest continuous annual selection of an All-America Team in major-college football.

Additionally, the AutoNation FWAA 75th Anniversary All-America Team, which was announced in August, will be celebrated during the 2015 season. That team includes players selected from past FWAA All-America teams dating to 1944, three years after the organization was formed in 1941. The AutoNation FWAA 75th Anniversary All-America Team is composed of three teams of 25 players each, with all eight decades, starting in the 1940s, represented among the playing eras of members on the team. It includes 56 National Football Foundation College Football Hall of Famers. Forty-one schools are represented on the team that was selected by an FWAA Blue Ribbon committee after taking into consideration voting of the membership.

About AutoNation, Inc.
AutoNation is transforming the automotive retail industry through bold leadership, delivering a peerless automotive retail experience through customer-focused sales and service processes. Owning and operating 293 new vehicle franchises, which sell 35 new vehicle brands across 15 states, AutoNation is America’s largest automotive retailer, with state-of-the-art operations and the ability to leverage economies of scale that benefit the customer. As an indication of its leadership position in our industry, AutoNation is a component of the S&P 500 Index.

About the AutoNation Cure Bowl
The AutoNation Cure Bowl is a new post-season NCAA football game whose net proceeds benefit the Breast Cancer Research Foundation. The AutoNation Cure Bowl takes place December 19 at the Citrus Bowl in Orlando, and will be broadcast by CBS Sports Network. The bowl is scheduled to involve teams from the American Athletic and Sun Belt conferences.

About the Football Writers Association of America
Founded in 1941, the FWAA consists of 1,400 men and women who cover college football. The membership includes journalists, broadcasters and publicists, as well as key executives in all the areas that involve the game. The FWAA works to govern areas that include gameday operations, major awards and its annual All-America team. For more information about the FWAA and its award programs, contact Steve Richardson at tiger@fwaa.com.