As fans gear up for the 2007 college football season, XM has kicked off their "XM Select & Connect Football Challenge" to give pigskin prognosticators the chance to win prizes including the "Ultimate College Football Road Trip" grand prize.

To play, register on xmselectandconnect.com and select the winners of the major college football games aired on XM each week. Every time you choose a winning team, you win points. Those who win the most points each week will receive various prizes like XM radios, an AT&T wireless phone, roundtrip airfare on AirTran Airways or the XM Tailgate Kit (which features an XM receiver plus boombox, a grill and tool set, cooler and chairs).

At the end of the 13-week regular season, the person with the most points overall will win the "Ultimate College Football Road Trip" where six people get to attend any college football game in 2008... be it a regular-season game or bowl game.

During the post-season this year, XM will offer a bonus round for folks to select the winners of 10 bowl games. The person who collects the most points from their bowl-game selections will win a trip for 2 to the college football rivalry game of their choice during the 2008 season.

[XM Select & Connect]

The US Open tennis championships will be airing live on XM Satellite Radio starting this Monday, August 27th.

Bud Collins and Virginia Wade will cover the US Open for XM from the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, N.Y. Coverage can be heard on XM Live (ch 120) with simulcasts on XM's sports talk channel XM Sports Nation (ch 144).

Collins will host the show “US Open Today” at 9am ET every morning of the 14-day event starting Monday, with news and analysis of the tournament highlights.

Play-by-play coverage of the US Open will air on XM starting September 7th with the women’s semi-finals, culminating with the men’s finals on September 9th.

[US Open on XM]

Just a neat video highlighting Dale Earnhardt Jr's visit to XM's headquarters.

Eight-time All-Star shortstop and captain of the New York Yankees, Derek Jeter, sat down for a taping of XM Satellite Radio's "Baseball Confidential" in front of a live audience a little over two weeks ago.

I had the distinct pleasure of attending the event, which was held in the beautiful Allen Room located in the Jazz at the Lincoln Center building overlooking Central Park. I originally intended on simply doing a photo tour of XM's NYC studios, and had the opportunity to attend the Baseball Confidential event as a result. (Ironically, the tour never happened, but I'm hoping on picking up the pieces in the near future.)

The interviewer was Buck Martinez, who's the co-host of XM's MLB Home Plate (ch 175) morning sports-talk show "Baseball This Morning" as well as a former MLB manager and catcher. The entire taping was a little over an hour (not counting the cocktail hour beforehand complete with baseball-themed horsdeurves) which was done in front of an audience of around 300 people.

The best thing was to see the audience filled with kids wearing Jeter jerseys running around beaming with excitement. Moreso than most other sports, I think baseball is really all about the kids. Questions ranged from the bumbling hardcore fan, to questions that only a kid could ask, like "what do you do besides play baseball and date girls?" (Jeter's response was "How old are you? Don't worry... someday you'll understand.").

Check out some more photos from the event after the jump... and sorry, I have no clue on the airdate.

XM Satellite Radio is 'kicking off' their biggest package of college football programming ever, with games for the six power conferences - ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10, and SEC - starting August 30.

XM is dedicating 15 radio channels to live play-by-play coverage of college football games for listeners across the continental United States. A channel guide is available online at xmradio.com/collegesports

"If you're a Texas fan, you can tune into your favorite team on XM, whether you're in Austin or you're two thousand miles away in Seattle." said Eric Logan, XM's executive vice president of programming. "You can be a Wisconsin fan vacationing in Florida, a Virginia Tech alum who lives in Phoenix, or a Cal fan headed to New England, and you can hear your teams on XM. This year, we've got the most college football games, the most teams, and the most conferences we've ever had."

On top of the games, the XM's sports talk radio channel XM Sports Nation (ch 144) will broadcast gameday reports each week from the host city of a major game.

XMSN will be in Starkville, Miss., on August 29th and 30th for the first SEC game of 2007 as LSU takes on Mississippi State. Gameday news and analysis, on-site interviews, and call-in shows from the MSU campus will be broadcast by the XMSN team. Fans can hear the Mississippi State game feed on SEC channel 199 and the LSU feed on SEC channel 200 on August 30th, starting with the pre-game shows at 6pm ET.

XM Sports Nation has also bumped up their on-air team of football analysts, led by former coach of the Oklahoma Sooners and Dallas Cowboys, Barry Switzer. Switzer now appears live on the show "XM Sports Nation This Morning" on Mondays and Fridays to talk football with host T.J. Rives.

Barry Switzer is joining XM Satellite Radio as a football analyst this fall for XM's sports talk radio channel: XM Sports Nation (ch 144).

Starting on August 20th, Switzer will appear live on the show "XM Sports Nation This Morning" with host T.J. Rives every Monday and Friday from 6:30am to 8am ET. Switzer will join Rives in sizing up the week's biggest match-ups in college and professional football, and they'll take phone calls from XM listeners across the United States.

During his 16 years as football coach at the University of Oklahoma, Switzer led the Sooners to three national championships, and he posted the fourth-best winning percentage (.837) in college football history. In the NFL he coached the Dallas Cowboys to victory in Super Bowl XXX, retiring in 1997 with a 45-26 career NFL coaching record.

A member of the College Football Hall of Fame, Switzer joins XM as they prepare to offer their largest package of college football games ever. XM is now the official satellite radio network for all six "power" conferences in college football -- the ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-10, and SEC. This will be the first season that XM will carry Big 12 and SEC games. XM also recently signed an agreement with FOX Sports to be the exclusive satellite radio network for the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) National Championship Game and other BCS games.

Check out another photo of Switzer after the jump...