Wealth & Money Quote by Arne Duncan

Duncan’s line lands because it refuses the feel-good mythology of college sports and talks like someone who’s seen the invoice. “Used” is the moral trigger word here: it frames the athlete-university relationship not as mentorship or tradition but as extraction. The clause “to produce revenue, to make money for them” piles up on purpose, an almost prosecutorial repetition that strips away the NCAA’s favorite euphemisms about “opportunity” and “amateurism.” He’s not arguing that sports are bad; he’s arguing the deal is crooked.

The subtext is a quiet indictment of an entire business model that depends on young bodies being temporarily valuable and permanently replaceable. “Nothing to show at the back end” is blunt, even a little ungainly, and that’s why it works: it sounds like the language of someone talking about neighbors and classmates, not policy white papers. It also shifts the timeline. The harm isn’t the concussion or the missed lecture today; it’s the cliff after the cheering stops, when scholarships end, networks dry up, and the promised “education” turns out to be more brand asset than safety net.

Context matters: Duncan is a public servant, not a coach angling for recruits or an athlete negotiating a contract. That gives his “continue to fight” a civic posture, hinting at reforms like stronger academic guarantees, real degree completion support, and athlete compensation or revenue sharing. The personal anecdote - “I grew up with” - is strategic ethos: he’s borrowing credibility from lived proximity, reminding you this isn’t an abstract culture-war argument. It’s a ledger of outcomes.