College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties23 empires194 battles6 raidsFinal · Jan 1
The 1980 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 1980 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

23 landholders · final

  1. 1Michigan1,194,683 mi² · 575 co
  2. 2Oklahoma670,177 mi² · 759 co
  3. 3BYU371,887 mi² · 193 co
  4. 4USC308,826 mi² · 346 co
  5. 5Pittsburgh200,865 mi² · 125 co
  6. 6Rice140,158 mi² · 152 co
  7. 7Nebraska106,490 mi² · 176 co
  8. 8Southern Miss85,616 mi² · 92 co
  9. 9Arizona State77,500 mi² · 24 co
  10. 10Utah State71,269 mi² · 85 co
  11. 11Georgia66,731 mi² · 131 co
  12. 12New HampshireFCS54,911 mi² · 41 co

1979 season1981 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 1980 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.