College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties14 empires153 battles5 raidsFinal · Jan 1
The 1987 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 1987 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

14 landholders · final

  1. 1Miami1,008,264 mi² · 1,079 co
  2. 2Houston670,299 mi² · 131 co
  3. 3Michigan State607,114 mi² · 348 co
  4. 4Clemson476,287 mi² · 483 co
  5. 5Iowa365,454 mi² · 370 co
  6. 6Syracuse249,439 mi² · 378 co
  7. 7Florida State129,261 mi² · 188 co
  8. 8Virginia Tech38,129 mi² · 46 co
  9. 9Holy CrossFCS17,776 mi² · 28 co
  10. 10Illinois StateFCS11,546 mi² · 21 co
  11. 11William & MaryFCS9,157 mi² · 24 co
  12. 12Texas A&M8,835 mi² · 16 co

1986 season1988 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 1987 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.