Visit our SuperBowl party board on Pinterest for more great ideas for entertaining on Sunday.

Unless your university campus is close to your parents’ home, chances are you won’t have the luxury of mom’s 7-layer dip and dad’s plasma screen for Super Bowl 46.

Yes, the good ol’ days are over, and now you have to make do with what you have: Your tiny apartment and tiny budget.

Get a lead over the Super Bowl and make the necessary preparations to get your apartment Super Bowl ready by following these five simple tips:

1. Have a game plan

Realize that watching the Super Bowl isn’t nearly as fun if you have a lot of things on your mind. According to BYU junior Daniel Lewis, there are several things that a true football fan has to do before game day.

“[You’ve] gotta make sure your meetings are done, church is over, nothing scheduled [and that you] collaborate [with friends] to guarantee that no one is left without a place to watch the game.”

Your friends (or “teammates”) are key to scoring an excellent Super Bowl party.

After you know who is coming to your party, you’ll know how much food is needed, and as every Super Bowl fan knows, food can make or break the game watching experience.

2. Divide and delegate

While food is important, don’t tear your hair out over making and purchasing all of the food and drinks on your own. The best way to split up the costs and labor is to make a list of all of the items you want to have at your party. Then ask each person you’ve invited to bring an item to share. After all, they are using YOUR apartment to watch the game. It’s the least they can do!

It’s also important to take into account how much time is needed to make your favorite Super Bowl dishes or you might have to go without!

“Some bbq takes days to prepare,” Lewis said. “If I make bbq beef, I have to marinate the meat for at least 24 hours, so it’s a process.”

3. Forfeit fumbling the fragile

If your living room couch is your desk away from home, make sure that your laptop is out of sight. There’s nothing like a laptop that’s been sat on to crush your spirits.

Elbow room and jumping space is also very important. Make sure that when your team scores a touchdown, one of your friends doesn’t get a concussion from banging their head on stuff hanging from your ceiling.

4. Put your furniture in formation

Not all apartments are created equal.

Because of this, make sure that you place your furniture in such a way that everyone can see the TV. Some students simply move their furniture around for better viewing while others take more extreme measures.

“We did stadium seating by placing a couch on our kitchen table at [our dorm freshman year],” said Tyler Young who is a third year at the University of Virginia law school. “[We found the table] far better than cinder blocks, and we liked it enough to keep it for the rest of the semester (until the collapse of the table seemed eminent).”

Another nice touch is to put foot rests and coffee tables out for your guests. Everyone likes to put their feet up and not spill their food and drinks all over their favorite jersey.

5. Go wide… screen, that is

One of the most forgotten but most important preparations of at all is making sure that you get the channel that the game will be shown on, and if you don’t, make sure you can stream it from the internet.

Also make sure your TV or projector and screen are big enough to accommodate all of the people you’ve invited.

“Whoever has the biggest TV in your group should supply either the host site or bring the TV over,” Lewis said.

It’s important to make sure everyone can see and is comfortable and able to see the TV.

You might also be interested in:

1. From Penn State to the Super Bowl: 10 crazy days
2. Colbert and Stewart ‘not coordinating’ on super PAC
3. Getting your desk ready for a fall internship
4. Create an inspirational wall for your dorm or apartment
5. Ms. Van Wilder? A super senior on the 5-year plan