College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties23 empires208 battles8 raidsFinal · Dec 31
The 1981 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 1981 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

23 landholders · final

  1. 1Washington923,638 mi² · 604 co
  2. 2Penn State749,194 mi² · 248 co
  3. 3BYU406,687 mi² · 390 co
  4. 4Oklahoma220,807 mi² · 160 co
  5. 5Mississippi State190,866 mi² · 346 co
  6. 6Pittsburgh182,694 mi² · 114 co
  7. 7Clemson119,439 mi² · 248 co
  8. 8Ohio State103,008 mi² · 112 co
  9. 9Drake99,513 mi² · 15 co
  10. 10Toledo92,240 mi² · 103 co
  11. 11Texas91,485 mi² · 88 co
  12. 12SMU89,906 mi² · 146 co

1980 season1982 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 1981 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.