basileus

Esprit de corps? It's an exploitative for profit industry; not the army. As for playing for "school," many of the players have what could be euphemistically described as a tenuous grasp of the English language. Those kids should go to the next level as quickly as possible, where they can be reasonably compensated for the economic value they generate. In too many cases, their "educations" haven't prepared them for meaningful earnings any other way. They are one injury away from a life of destitution. If we want that to change, the NCAA needs major structural reforms. Those reforms would probably mean that fewer than 60 schools could field division 1 teams. So the B1G, SEC, and some merger of the PAC/Big 12 would probably be all that would survive, and not all of the weaker programs within those conferences currently would make the grade.

Comparing Nashville to Atlanta is about as much of a stretch as Athens, just in the opposite direction. I'd compare it to Austin. Nashville and Austin are both known for live music, concerts, conferences, bar culture, actual culture, and being global destination cities. The MSAs are also comparable in terms of GDP, tourists, airport volume etc.