College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties26 empires178 battles8 raidsFinal · Dec 31
The 1971 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 1971 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

26 landholders · final

  1. 1Nebraska1,786,007 mi² · 1,652 co
  2. 2USC810,326 mi² · 268 co
  3. 3Tennessee171,983 mi² · 249 co
  4. 4Georgia130,224 mi² · 146 co
  5. 5Boise StateFCS119,655 mi² · 49 co
  6. 6Hayward State82,795 mi² · 21 co
  7. 7Ole Miss66,761 mi² · 90 co
  8. 8Columbia65,076 mi² · 56 co
  9. 9Toledo55,871 mi² · 120 co
  10. 10Penn State55,275 mi² · 21 co
  11. 11Colorado45,360 mi² · 108 co
  12. 12Southern Miss41,510 mi² · 59 co

1970 season1972 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 1971 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.