Every county starts with the nearest FCS stadium. Win, and you take everything the loser holds. Lose it all, and the only way back is beating somebody who still owns dirt. Wins by teams from a higher division move nothing on this map; raids from below still count. This is the 2019 season, played to its final whistle.
Final conquests
Standings
14 landholders · final
The standings
North Dakota State won the 2019 season on the FCS imperialism map with 3,201,644 mi² across 2,433 counties, the largest empire when the last game went final on January 13, 2020. South Dakota finished second with 87,469 mi², ahead of Cornell (85,224 mi²) and VMI (50,191 mi²). 14 empires held land at the end, across 3,142 counties.
Final ·
Articles of war
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.
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.
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 this map, wins by teams from a higher division move nothing; raids from lower divisions still count. 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 2019 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.