College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties10 empires167 battles4 raidsFinal · Jan 4
The 2003 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 2003 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

10 landholders · final

  1. 1USC1,660,924 mi² · 895 co
  2. 2Ohio State673,635 mi² · 647 co
  3. 3Maryland369,635 mi² · 478 co
  4. 4Clemson200,412 mi² · 127 co
  5. 5LSU189,266 mi² · 201 co
  6. 6Miami179,651 mi² · 263 co
  7. 7Utah162,516 mi² · 281 co
  8. 8NortheasternFCS101,104 mi² · 101 co
  9. 9Miami (OH)67,103 mi² · 147 co
  10. 10Minnesota1,215 mi² · 2 co

2002 season2004 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 2003 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.