Before players were getting paid, they were short term incentivized to neglect school in favor of football for short term football glory, but they were long term incentivized to neglect football in favor of school because a good education paid off over the long term.No one should want a Paterno. Everything that Joe believed in is out of the window now. These guys are professionals are getting paid. Just a few years back that was considered the worst thing to get caught doing.
Education? Plsyers are making few hundred thousand a year to a few million a year while getting paid to play. All they have to do is stay eligible. That grand experiment doesn't exist anymore and if you want to be competitive in football you're going to have to put out for the best players, coach them up, and win championships.
But now things have changed. A good education still pays off over the long term, but now in addition to short term glory of being a football star they also get a lot of money that can help them over the long term if they don't squander it.
If you work like crazy at football this year and get a lot better as a result, while taking easy classes than you don't have to put effort into, you can convert that into hundreds of thousands more dollars next year. You can then use that to fund your future, whether to get more education or start a business or whatever.