College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties11 empires172 battles3 raidsFinal · Jan 4
The 2004 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 2004 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

11 landholders · final

  1. 1Auburn1,235,086 mi² · 866 co
  2. 2USC679,217 mi² · 602 co
  3. 3Utah436,437 mi² · 630 co
  4. 4Texas401,913 mi² · 218 co
  5. 5Ohio State239,682 mi² · 246 co
  6. 6Louisville204,759 mi² · 92 co
  7. 7Iowa199,467 mi² · 146 co
  8. 8Penn State112,845 mi² · 171 co
  9. 9Texas Tech54,009 mi² · 92 co
  10. 10Southern Miss27,459 mi² · 44 co
  11. 11Georgia Tech14,587 mi² · 35 co

2003 season2005 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 2004 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.