Stephanie Pedersen: Anything for the love of the game

I love college football.

My husband and I don't see eye to eye in our college football team allegiance, but we do both love the game.

So, when it came time to plan a trip to Richmond Hill (near Savannah, Ga.) to visit with his family, I had one caveat: I will be watching the College Football Playoffs on New Year's Eve. No matter what.

You see, I know his family doesn't share our love for the game. I don't understand it, but that's OK. Maybe it's not for everyone.

I maneuvered my way through early conversations about our plans for Dec. 31 with just "I don't knows" and "We'll figure it out later." I work under the mantra it's best for the spouse to deal with plans with their family. No one wants a pushy daughter- or sister-in-law.

I avoided the conversation until the morning of the two big games. And I quickly lost my cool.

"What are your plans for tonight?" they asked.

"Watching football," I said. "We don't have cable," they said. "What channel is it on?"

"ESPN," I said while glaring at my husband. "No, we don't have that," they said.

"Well, I guess I'm going to a bar by myself for New Year's," I said, seriously, but laughing, hoping I could ease the tension.

They didn't laugh; not even a little bit.

I texted my sister and brother to see if they had any advice, but their in-laws grew up in the South. Mine did not.

I quickly reached out to Twitter to see what extreme measure I would need to take to make sure I saw the games.

A former colleague informed me if I had a cable or dish sign in I could use the Watch ESPN app on my iPad. I was skeptical it could keep up with the games and the amount of traffic those apps would likely get. But it worked.

It wasn't the best college football viewing experience of my life. I had to stop the app, restart the game and sometimes not check text messages or Twitter because they were spoiling it for me.

But in the end, neither game was very close, the TV ratings tanked because it was New Year's Eve and more people have families like my husband's that actually want to do something other than football on that day, and I got to see both teams I wanted to win take the victory.

And because they were blowouts, Alabama's game against Michigan State ended with more than enough time to change the TV from video games to ABC to see the ball drop.

The kids made it to midnight, we all kissed each other and wished everyone a happy new year. After they were tucked into bed, I went back to my iPad.

Because like most people during their holiday break, not only was I interested in college football and bowl games, but I also had to finish "Making a Murderer" on Netflix.

Dabo Swinney. Nick Saban. And Steven Avery.

Sounds like the perfect holiday.

Stephanie Pedersen, senior editor, spedersen@ledger-enquirer.com.

This story was originally published January 6, 2016 at 9:24 PM with the headline "Stephanie Pedersen: Anything for the love of the game ."