College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties15 empires146 battles1 raidsFinal · Jan 1
The 1949 CFB Imperialism map
Surveying the counties…

Every county starts with the nearest FBS stadium. Win, and you take everything the loser holds. Lose it all, and the only way back is beating somebody who still owns dirt. This is the 1949 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

15 landholders · final

  1. 1Michigan1,006,240 mi² · 497 co
  2. 2Rice621,227 mi² · 668 co
  3. 3Oklahoma491,449 mi² · 515 co
  4. 4Ohio State477,031 mi² · 373 co
  5. 5Notre Dame247,663 mi² · 385 co
  6. 6Loyola Marymount239,717 mi² · 50 co
  7. 7Drake164,058 mi² · 123 co
  8. 8Army94,306 mi² · 134 co
  9. 9McMurryD-III55,460 mi² · 47 co
  10. 10Minnesota49,290 mi² · 119 co
  11. 11Tennessee44,023 mi² · 39 co
  12. 12Princeton35,719 mi² · 57 co

1948 season1950 season ›All-time records ›

Articles of war

How the war works

I

The seeding

Before a down is played, every county in the fifty states is dealt to the FBS program with the nearest stadium, measured as the crow flies from the county's geographic center. Nobody starts landless in the FBS; nobody outside it starts with anything.

II

The conquest

When a game goes final, the winner takes everything the loser holds at that moment: home soil and every prior conquest alike. Games are replayed in kickoff order, so an empire can rise and fall inside a single Saturday.

III

The raid

A team with no land has nothing to lose, but it can beat any landholder and take the lot. That is how FCS, Division II and Division III programs raid their way onto the map, and land taken downward can stay there all season.

Ties, unfinished games and games without a score are ignored. Territories (Puerto Rico, Guam, the Virgin Islands) are off the map. Neutral-site games overseas do not yet award foreign soil. A week appears in the timeline once its first game goes final. The current map is refreshed automatically every morning during the season. The 1949 campaign is complete. Stadium coordinates, colors and logos are today's; conference and division come from each season's own results. The full rules and methodology have the details.