There are people who care about reforming the Bowl Championship Series, and there are people who go homeless to reform the Bowl Championship Series. Guess which category Brandon Kennedy, author of "The Kennedy Proposal," belongs to.
Here are Kennedy's vitals, per this quirky Washington Post profile:
• He's homeless, living on the streets of Georgetown, but he's not a bum, thank you very much.
• Like every other college athlete, he wrote a paper about the BCS for English class and became hooked by the topic, so much so that he went all John Nash and scribbled his proposal all over his apartment's walls.
• His parents cut him out of their cellphone plan, and he now considers himself the Kennedy's "black sheep." He turned to grandma, of course, and she bought him a cell phone. If he doesn't have the money to pay for the bill by month's end, he'll beg for it.
• The Kennedy Proposal: six champions from the BCS conferences and four at-large teams compete in a playoff bracket. The two left standing play for the national championship; the eight losers play in BCS bowls.
It's more complicated than that — it must be, since it's gone through 160 pages in drafts, and Kennedy uses the Georgetown library to remain up-to-date with the latest developments — but 15,000 e-mails later, he's still having trouble getting the ear of college presidents and D.C. politicos. (They're busy bemoaning the state of the BCS in a more public setting.)
Kennedy's thinking about leaving the Beltway soon, but before he bolts, he'd be wise to go straight to the top. Rumor has it, there's a guy in the White House who happens to share similar views on the BCS and knows something about hope and change.
Maybe Shaq can hook him up.
Playoff Advocate Goes Homeless Against The BCS [Washington Post]
Leveling The Playing Field [Sports Illustrated]