College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties12 empires168 battles10 raidsFinal · Jan 4
The 2005 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 2005 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

12 landholders · final

  1. 1TCU829,605 mi² · 150 co
  2. 2West Virginia765,658 mi² · 987 co
  3. 3Texas639,038 mi² · 736 co
  4. 4Ohio State342,366 mi² · 438 co
  5. 5Washington State303,889 mi² · 181 co
  6. 6Boston College303,422 mi² · 166 co
  7. 7Clemson241,889 mi² · 178 co
  8. 8Louisiana92,423 mi² · 167 co
  9. 9Penn State36,625 mi² · 68 co
  10. 10Tulsa31,992 mi² · 42 co
  11. 11Montana StateFCS17,339 mi² · 27 co
  12. 12Texas StateFCS1,215 mi² · 2 co

2004 season2006 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 2005 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.