College football, played as RiskFBS FCS D-II D-III Carousel

The Carousel Imperialism Map

3,142 counties11 empires92 battles19 raidsFinal · Jan 9

Surveying the counties…

The FBS map without the preseason reset. Since 2014 every season opens with the borders the last one ended with, and land stays with the program when its coach leaves. The one reset is tied to coaching: a program that opens a season landless gets its home counties back if it hired a new head coach. How the reset works › Replay 2014 to today › This is the 2016 season, played to its final whistle.

Final conquests

Bowls 1

Youngstown State def. Eastern Washington40–38 · Dec 17raid+104 counties
Southern Miss def. Louisiana28–21 · Dec 17+31 counties
Northwestern def. Pittsburgh31–24 · Dec 28upset+102 counties
Florida def. Iowa30–3 · Jan 2upset+9 counties
Wisconsin def. Western Michigan24–16 · Jan 2+43 counties
USC def. Penn State52–49 · Jan 2+118 counties
James Madison def. Youngstown State28–14 · Jan 7raid+104 counties
Clemson def. Alabama35–31 · Jan 9upset+2,436 counties

Standings

The Empires

11 landholders · final

1Clemson3,104,924 mi² · 2,436 co
2USC159,548 mi² · 156 co
3Northwestern70,093 mi² · 102 co
4Oklahoma64,647 mi² · 94 co
5James MadisonFCS57,811 mi² · 104 co
6South Florida43,045 mi² · 51 co
7Georgia Tech38,102 mi² · 72 co
8Southern Miss22,627 mi² · 31 co
9Wisconsin20,265 mi² · 43 co
10PrincetonFCS16,202 mi² · 44 co
11Florida8,197 mi² · 9 co

‹ 2015 season 2017 season ›All-time records ›

How the carousel resets

Borders carry over. New coaches can start fresh.

No preseason reset

On the FBS map every county goes back to its nearest stadium each August. Here 2016 opens with the exact borders 2015 ended with, so empires survive the offseason.

Land stays with the program

When a head coach leaves, retires or is fired, his successor inherits whatever the program holds, big empire or nothing. A mid-season firing moves nothing either: the interim takes over the same land.

III

The coaching reset

A program that opens a season with no land gets its home counties back if it hired a new head coach, or if it just moved up to FBS. Those counties are taken from whoever held them. A landless program that keeps its coach stays landless until it wins its way back.

During the season the rules are the FBS map's: win and take everything the loser holds. Compare the 2016 FBS map › Replay every season from 2014 ›

Articles of war

How the war works

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.

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.

On the carousel map, land carries over from season to season since 2014 and stays with the program when a coach leaves; a program that opens a season landless gets its home counties back if it hired a new head coach. 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.