<P> The group reunited for a one - time performance at Mixtape Festival in Hershey, PA in August 2012 . After the performance, the reunion expanded into a new album and a spot on "The Package" tour in 2013 . </P> <P> The founding members of 98 Degrees met after Massillon, Ohio native Jeff Timmons decided to quit university and pursue a music career with best friend Jeremy Volk . He studied psychology at Kent State University in his home state of Ohio, and planned on a career playing football in the NFL . In 1995 he sang at a college party with three friends, and received a positive reaction from the female audience about his voice . The following day he left college and headed out to Los Angeles, California . "It was a pretty hasty decision, looking back, but I was young and dumb . Sometimes ignorance is bliss," he said in 2004 . He met a former student of the School for Creative and Performing Arts who passed his name on to another graduate, Nick Lachey, who was attending Miami University to study sports medicine . Lachey flew to Los Angeles and after hitting it off, decided to form a boyband . Lachey suggested inviting one of his friends, Justin Jeffre, to join them . Jeffre, a history student at University of Cincinnati, had attended SCPA with Lachey and they had performed together before in various outfits such as a barbershop quartet at the amusement park Kings Island and a cover band . The final member to join the band was Lachey's younger brother, Drew, who was working in New York City as an emergency medical technician . </P> <P> After rejecting a series of names (including Just Us and Next Issue), the group decided on "98 Degrees" describing body temperature and their music . </P> <P> Taking a series of jobs including landscaping, working as club security officers and delivering take - out food, the band refined its harmonies and presentation, looking to groups such as Boyz II Men, Take 5, and Jodeci for inspiration . The new group also made the rounds of auditions in Los Angeles and gradually built up its contacts in the music industry . Fortunately, the group's wait for a manager and a recording contract would not take long, as they seized an opportunity to perform during a radio broadcast of a Boyz II Men concert, which they attended in the hope of passing a demo tape to the band . They were discovered by music manager Paris D'Jon, who at the time was co-managing Montell Jordan . </P>

Where did the band name 98 degrees come from