College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties20 empires186 battles6 raidsFinal · Dec 31
The 1972 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 1972 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

20 landholders · final

  1. 1USC904,251 mi² · 421 co
  2. 2Oklahoma713,457 mi² · 533 co
  3. 3Auburn442,046 mi² · 729 co
  4. 4Texas423,964 mi² · 342 co
  5. 5Virginia236,068 mi² · 112 co
  6. 6San Diego State161,607 mi² · 94 co
  7. 7North Carolina136,250 mi² · 155 co
  8. 8Utah State127,807 mi² · 68 co
  9. 9Dartmouth89,788 mi² · 97 co
  10. 10Minnesota68,059 mi² · 136 co
  11. 11South Dakota66,091 mi² · 71 co
  12. 12Clemson65,253 mi² · 133 co

1971 season1973 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 1972 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.