College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties14 empires154 battles2 raidsFinal · Jan 1
The 1996 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 1996 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

14 landholders · final

  1. 1Ohio State963,336 mi² · 279 co
  2. 2Alabama455,928 mi² · 610 co
  3. 3BYU436,166 mi² · 373 co
  4. 4Florida400,968 mi² · 542 co
  5. 5San José State390,589 mi² · 228 co
  6. 6Penn State299,464 mi² · 309 co
  7. 7Syracuse166,446 mi² · 132 co
  8. 8South Carolina164,885 mi² · 177 co
  9. 9Miami123,863 mi² · 178 co
  10. 10East Carolina87,503 mi² · 136 co
  11. 11Nebraska56,640 mi² · 133 co
  12. 12Colorado35,598 mi² · 18 co

1995 season1997 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 1996 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.