It’s not all about the fame for a college athlete.

This week, Zoey (Yara Shahidi) and her friends tried to come to an understanding of what being a college athlete is really all about. After star basketball player, Cash Mooney (Da’Vinchi) requests Zoey as a tutor, she ends up spending more time with him than she planned in order to get a Teen Vogue fellowship recommendation letter from Dean Parker (Chris Parnell). Instead of just putting in ten percent, Zoey decides to really help Cash – after learning that it’s not all fun and games for college athletes. After a bad game, he starts to doubt whether or not he can actually go into the league. The coaches are giving up on him and he thinks that basketball is his only shot at success. Zoey reminds him that he’s still at one of the best schools in the country – maybe, he should take advantage of that and look into filming. He’s pushed by her words, but not necessarily in the way she had advised. He gets his momentum back and puts that energy into the game, but has someone else take his test for him.

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Meanwhile, Nomi (Emily Arlook) meets a new guy at the bar – after ending things with a girl she’s hooking up with because of her finding out Nomi is bisexual. While watching a basketball game with the group, Nomi’s new guy makes it known that he’s also messed around with other guys and considers himself a bisexual. However, the responses are not the same from the gang as they were with Nomi. ‘Starboy’ brought some topics that are not usually discussed when it comes to showcasing colleges on television. It was interesting to hear all the points of view on college athletes’ treatment. There were a few things that needed further discussion so we are going to do just that!

Giving us some more viewpoints on this week’s topics is our Grown-ish roundtable!

Tatyana (@Naticreblaxican) – Lover of Anime, MMA, and the Earth

Jeria (@jereyea) – Student, Stan, and Tweeter

Aima (@ASAPAIMA) – Music lover and poetry trash

Ryan (@legendarylevy) – child actor, TV & movie buff

Miya (@MsMiya_) -Writer, Film Enthusiast, Singer.

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1. Zoey and Cash talked about how they’re stressed and have a lot of pressure on them. Do you agree that college is a lot more than what people may realize?

Tatyana (@Naticreblaxican): ABSOLUTELY! As a college student, I’m faced with the stress of grades, papers, tests, professors, my future, grad school, work, money problems, and personal growing pains. People who think it’s just a cake walk must not have been to college or did at a different time. For Cash, it is even harder as you’re an athlete.

Jeria (@jereyea): I agree that people often think college is just fun and games, and it’s a reality shock when you get there and realized it’s a lot more than partying and cramming for finals.

Aima (@ASAPAIMA): I feel like it is so much stress and people need to understand that students are extremely stressed and have so much to handle!

Ryan (@legendarylevy): College is a lot different than high school like Zoey mentioned. Your teachers don’t babysit you to show up for class or hand in your assignments. Students are on their own and have to go to bed at a decent time to wake up for classes, and still have to have the energy to socialize. College is juggling many things at once, some students even have part-time jobs when they go to college.

Miya (@MsMiya_): Yes. I strongly agree. I believe that regardless of who you are, there is a pressure that you have to be the best in college but I think it’s even more pressure on black kids because we are taught that we have to be twice as good than our counterparts.

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2. College athletes on scholarship don’t have it as easy as many may think. How did you feel about the points given in the bar about this topic?

Tatyana: I was sitting with my mother during this part and she went on about all these perks they get. But I believe there are definitely negatives to this as they mentioned in the show. Not everything is as it seems.

Jeria: I agree with everything said on Grown-ish about that topic.This may be extreme, but these kids only come out of school with an education after basically being slaves to the school. Often times the education they receive isn’t even what it could have been because they’re so focused on the false hope of going pro that they don’t care about.

Aima: Yes, I feel so bad for college athletes they barely have time for themselves they deserve extra credit and deserve all the love they receive.

Ryan: I loved that they pointed this out. It is a misconception that college athletes are wealthy or paid, this is untrue and a lot of them are struggling socially and financially students just like you.

Miya: I thought those were some valid points, I believe schools invest their money in these students but if they don’t do well they kick them to the curb without any remorse, because they are not doing what colleges need them to do.

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3. What do you think is Zoe’s reason for still taking Adderall?

Tatyana: Part of Zoey is trying to find herself. Not to sound cliché but everyone is doing *something*. Zoey sees everyone around her kind of defined by what they take or use and she wants to be on top of everything like she was in high school. The Adderall is helping her do that.

Jeria: I don’t think Zoey has a valid reason to take the Adderall’s anymore. She’s either doing it out of habit or she’s actually addicted or maybe that has become her “thing”.

Aima: I think she’s under a lot of stress with college and she needs to distract herself.

Ryan: Most likely Zoey is taking Adderall still because she feels she cant handle college and it is boosting her ability to handle everything and concentrate. To cope with college.

Miya: I’m not sure. I don’t see a reason why she would even still need to take the little blue pills but maybe she is stressed. Or maybe she has a ton of work that she has to do.

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4. Dean Parker and Cash’s sports administrators all gave up on Cash once they decided he wasn’t good enough for to make it to the league. How do you feel about the way people in authority treat their athletes in college?

Tatyana: I feel like people pretty much act like they own them! Power corrupts people and people in power abuse others. I viewed this as predictable however the students irritated me. It was as if his worth as a human being was dependant upon his performance. Do well or you’re worthless.

Jeria: I hate how people in authority treat college athletes. They treat them as if they’re disposable and search for another way to get money while the athletes are often just lost.

Aima: They treat them terribly. They expect them to be perfect all the time people can’t be perfect they are just people.

Ryan: It is unfair to give up on a player and abandon them. They shouldn’t have treated him like that and helped him get back to being a better player. As long as a player is playing well they are put on a pedestal but once they are losing people in authority act like the athlete is nonexistent. It is very disappointing because it all comes down to money and finances and if you are bringing in more for the team.

Miya: They don’t treat them with respect. They basically use them to their advantage and once they see that the athletes are of no use they discard them like trash. It’s so unfortunate.

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5. Holy, double standard! Everyone caught the way things changed once Nomi’s new guy said he’d messed with other guys before, right? Is okay for girls to be bisexual and not okay for boys to be the same?

Tatyana: I’m curious to whether she has a reason for feeling some type of way and I don’t see a reason why not. If girls can, guys can.

Jeria: It’s okay for boys and girls to be bisexual, but men often get a lot of hate for It. I also thought it might’ve been a cultural thing based on the way the twins and Aaron looked at Nomi’s new guy.

Aima: Boys and girls can both be bisexual it’s 2018, EQUALITY PEOPLE!

Ryan: I have been in conversations about this before and wondered why the double standard. It is “hot” or “sexy” for a girl/woman to be bisexual but if a boy/male is bisexual it is “weird” or “odd”. It is ok for both genders to be bisexual but the perception of female to male genders being bisexual is completely different.

Miya: It’s so upsetting to see that people even in the LGBT community are biphobic and erase bisexual people altogether. It’s wrong and disrespectful to those in the bisexual community. The double standard that girls can be bi but guys can’t infuriate me, because who is anyone to say that guys can’t be interested in girls and boys. How can anyone tell someone else who they are?

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6. Zoey thought she got through to Cash by helping him realize that he can be more than just a basketball player. Did you think he would pull a stunt, like having someone take a test for him?

Tatyana: He’s still an athlete. This happens a lot so I can’t say I’m surprised. There are still some perks to being an athlete in certain sports.

Jeria: I thought he would have gone to his exam especially the way that Zoey helped him, but I get how his main focus was to pass so he could continue to play.

Aima: I honestly believed that he would pull a stunt.

Ryan: I wasn’t surprised just shocked he put in the work and tried then decided to cheat. It shows that Cash values sports over schoolwork in a way. Not the way I would go about it.

Miya: Yes, I did. The reason why is because like in most cases I have seen with student-athletes is once they got what they need (tutoring, or extra practice) and they are back on track, they go back to their old habits. Zoey was blinded by how Cash presented himself to her. She didn’t think he would do something like that.

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7. Aaron researched jobs for his preferred career and got a little wake-up call. Is this a realistic depiction of what many college students go through?

Tatyana: This was definitely realistic. In this world, if you don’t find a STEM major interesting / aren’t passionate about it, you have to find another way to be happy while paying your bills. I got lucky and wound up loving psychology which is actually STEM (it is, I swear… google). If I were to drop everything and say “I want to be a writer!” , I know I would struggle. I had to finesse it a little but I’ll do that after I get this degree. Some have to pull themselves up from the bootstraps; I know someone who is a “revolutionary”. He owns his own business as it is taught that you have to make it happen on your own. A hard path but it is possible. I say well done, grown-ish!! I can’t express how accurate that was!

Jeria: This is an accurate depiction of what college students go through. We often look up what we’d like to do, and realized that we won’t get paid enough to survive or that maybe that’s not what we want to do for the rest of our lives. That was the most relatable moment in the series to date.

Aima: Yes, definitely.

Ryan: Many students think they know what they want to go into, but do not know exactly the job entails or what they need to be above others to get a job in the industry. I can relate to Aaron searching for his preferred career and getting a wake-up call.

Miya: Yes. I think every college student goes through the “what degree is my job going to get me” moment in life & it’s tough. Not knowing the outcome of your future can be hard on a person.

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Grown-ish is perfectly showing the reality of college athletics and gender bias.

College athletes are not all scooting through college without any worries. They have just as many frustrations and insecurities as the rest of us. It’s harder than people think to be a college student. Grown-ish did a great job at showing how college athletes are treated by both peers and the faculty.  We liked the way they showed how people reacted to bisexuality when it’s a woman with the label versus when it’s a man. The reactions were perfectly shown.

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The episode moved slower than previous weeks. The conversations were a little bit more serious than those of previous weeks as well. However, the episode was directed and written well too.

Looks like Zoey is going to be dealing with Cash a little longer. She says she’s staying away from the guys, but that just doesn’t seem like it’ll be happening anytime soon. Next week’s episode is sure to be an interesting one.

grown-ish returns next Wednesday, January 24th at 8/7c on Freeform.