College football, played as Risk

The Imperialism Map

3,142 counties15 empires203 battles12 raidsFinal · Jan 8
The 2017 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 2017 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Standings

The Empires

15 landholders · final

  1. 1Ohio State1,661,293 mi² · 917 co
  2. 2Alabama503,970 mi² · 652 co
  3. 3Pittsburgh286,121 mi² · 430 co
  4. 4South Florida198,481 mi² · 239 co
  5. 5Penn State170,002 mi² · 180 co
  6. 6App State158,215 mi² · 138 co
  7. 7UCF139,247 mi² · 185 co
  8. 8Boise State107,246 mi² · 17 co
  9. 9Northwestern106,250 mi² · 116 co
  10. 10Middle Tennessee90,521 mi² · 9 co
  11. 11Louisiana Tech67,742 mi² · 120 co
  12. 12Florida State56,418 mi² · 44 co

2016 season2018 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 2017 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.