College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties21 empires183 battles5 raidsFinal · Dec 31
The 1978 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 1978 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

21 landholders · final

  1. 1USC1,240,750 mi² · 890 co
  2. 2Missouri698,485 mi² · 488 co
  3. 3Arizona State414,605 mi² · 127 co
  4. 4Arkansas229,650 mi² · 290 co
  5. 5San José State176,734 mi² · 96 co
  6. 6Alabama166,994 mi² · 309 co
  7. 7Dartmouth156,158 mi² · 147 co
  8. 8Stanford125,294 mi² · 126 co
  9. 9UL Monroe88,253 mi² · 64 co
  10. 10Texas-Arlington66,981 mi² · 132 co
  11. 11Michigan State49,807 mi² · 99 co
  12. 12Alcorn StateFCS43,696 mi² · 68 co

1977 season1979 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 1978 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.