College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties12 empires200 battles25 raidsFinal · Jan 9
The 2016 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 2016 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

12 landholders · final

  1. 1USC1,946,754 mi² · 928 co
  2. 2Clemson380,159 mi² · 475 co
  3. 3Northwestern306,051 mi² · 540 co
  4. 4Air Force231,987 mi² · 178 co
  5. 5Florida191,794 mi² · 164 co
  6. 6Oklahoma125,410 mi² · 197 co
  7. 7Georgia Tech119,411 mi² · 188 co
  8. 8James MadisonFCS102,792 mi² · 145 co
  9. 9Southern Miss79,744 mi² · 111 co
  10. 10Wisconsin53,981 mi² · 93 co
  11. 11South Florida51,176 mi² · 79 co
  12. 12PrincetonFCS16,202 mi² · 44 co

2015 season2017 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 2016 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.