'Bachelor' stint helps Palmer in booth

0 Comments | USA TODAY, August, 2008 | by Michael Hiestand

The latest twists in ESPN's Thursday night college football games, which have been rising from relative obscurity to a high-profile perch, include more big-name teams. For the first time, each game this season includes at least one team from the six conferences that get automatic berths in the Bowl Championship Series.

And for the first time, the announcing team will include an analyst who ran bachelorettes through a two-month tryout camp for the prime-time reality show The Bachelor.

That's Jesse Palmer, who quarterbacked at Florida and, after being selected in the 2001 NFL draft, played four seasons with the New York Giants.

He was on ABC's The Bachelor in 2004 after his agent called and said the show was looking for a pro athlete to winnow through...