College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties26 empires215 battles13 raidsFinal · Jan 1
The 1977 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 1977 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

26 landholders · final

  1. 1Notre Dame956,489 mi² · 926 co
  2. 2Kentucky918,887 mi² · 345 co
  3. 3Washington293,911 mi² · 295 co
  4. 4USC247,460 mi² · 170 co
  5. 5Arkansas191,025 mi² · 203 co
  6. 6Fresno State143,252 mi² · 81 co
  7. 7DaytonD-III140,367 mi² · 64 co
  8. 8Colorado State129,897 mi² · 153 co
  9. 9Alabama124,655 mi² · 215 co
  10. 10San Diego State123,622 mi² · 143 co
  11. 11Yale56,567 mi² · 44 co
  12. 12Ball State51,441 mi² · 77 co

1976 season1978 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 1977 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.