College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties23 empires197 battles9 raidsFinal · Dec 31
The 1974 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 1974 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

23 landholders · final

  1. 1Oklahoma1,219,328 mi² · 492 co
  2. 2Notre Dame407,346 mi² · 574 co
  3. 3Michigan State312,914 mi² · 256 co
  4. 4USC296,124 mi² · 299 co
  5. 5Penn State221,810 mi² · 229 co
  6. 6Arkansas155,608 mi² · 55 co
  7. 7Louisville139,123 mi² · 123 co
  8. 8Tulsa117,747 mi² · 165 co
  9. 9Miami (OH)94,199 mi² · 156 co
  10. 10NC State91,420 mi² · 104 co
  11. 11UNLVD-II89,810 mi² · 27 co
  12. 12Cal Poly-Pomona82,795 mi² · 21 co

1973 season1975 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 1974 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.