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The College Football Empires Map: Georgia and Michigan State join leaders

Every FBS team started with land, and every week winners take more and more.

By Nathan Bingham

Welcome to Week 9 of the 2018 College Football Empires Map. Here are the rules:

To begin the season, each FBS team was given control of its surrounding territory. Each game that involves one or two teams with territory results in the winner claiming all of it. Results carry on week to week, so teams are always in the process of trying to regain or expand land. For more detailed rules, check out Week 1’s explanation.

Here’s the updated 2018 map, with notes to follow.

Land changes this week

  • Nevada ended San Diego State’s five-game win streak, and the Wolf Pack took control of the Aztec land in Southern Texas, Arizona, Wyoming, and Michigan.
  • Georgia won the World’s Largest Outdoor Cocktail Party against Florida and possession of the largest state, as well as some other territories scattered across the county and the territory of Puerto Rico.
  • In this week’s lone consolidation game, Iowa State defeated Texas Tech to gain control of Akron’s original territory.
  • Texas decided to not be back this week, losing to Oklahoma State and giving away territories in Oklahoma, Colorado, and Maryland, plus the entirety of Hawaii.
  • Purdue’s hype train came to a screeching halt, Michigan State ceding all of the land they just earned from Ohio State to Michigan State.
  • Mississippi State won back its home territory with a win over Texas A&M. They are now the only team with a loss to currently own their homeland.
  • Houston handed USF its first loss of the season and took over four new territories.
  • Georgia Southern showed its rivalry with Appalachian State is truly Deeper Than Hate, securing the first win over a ranked team in school history and Charlotte’s homeland.
  • Delaware upset Towson with a last-minute touchdown and secured Temple’s original homeland, which entered the FCS through Temple’s loss to Villanova.

Here’s how the map changed this week

Week 10’s biggest games

  • College GameDay will be attending its seventh consolidation game of the season, Alabama-LSU. Alabama’s first real test is a battle for control of much of the Southeastern Conference and much of the Southeast.
  • Northwestern will look to pull off its third top 25 upset of the season, as they host the Fighting Irish. The winner will control much of Illinois, along with the title for most territories owned.
  • UCF and Temple will square off Thursday night for the lead in the AAC East and to combine their eight territories together.
  • Georgia and Kentucky will play to represent the SEC East in the SEC Championship game and also will fight for Alaska and Puerto Rico.
  • Michigan will attempt to defend its territory against Penn State on Saturday.

Here’s how the whole season looks so far:

Stats!

Territories

1. Notre Dame- 18

t2. Michigan State and Clemson- 12

t4. Iowa State, Oklahoma State, and Washington State- 8

Counties

  1. Michigan - 306
  2. Utah - 268
  3. Clemson - 250
  4. Alabama - 241
  5. Michigan State - 240

Population

  1. Notre Dame - 58,746,297
  2. Michigan State - 44,483,938
  3. Clemson - 24,114,545
  4. Washington State - 16,463,931
  5. Houston - 14,658,163

Land Area (sq. miles)

  1. Georgia - 700,256
  2. Utah - 454,000
  3. Notre Dame - 320,513
  4. Michigan - 281,653
  5. Washington State - 258,252

We’re also keeping up a Historic version of this same exercise. It began in 2017, not 2018.

  • Michigan State defeated the prior leader in Purdue and took control of roughly half of the Historic map, setting up a chance for Ohio State to win back all the land they just lost, if Michigan State beats Maryland this week.
  • Georgia defeated Florida to take over the original land of USF, Ball State, Illinois, WKU, and San Jose State. They will try and defend it from No. 11 Kentucky this week.
  • Houston defeated USF to take most of Oklahoma, and parts of Texas, Indiana, and Ohio. The map is setting up nicely to converge all of the American conference land in the conference championship game. Houston plays SMU this week, who will look to avenge their overtime loss to Cincinnati.
  • Alabama will look to defend the territory they have gathered over the last two seasons in their top-five matchup against LSU.
  • Notre Dame will hope to keep playoff dreams alive as they play Northwestern, the current leader of the B1G West.
  • The UCF and Temple game will result in combined territory and drop the number of teams on the historic map down to nine. We’re slowly getting closer to one team consolidating the entire map, even if it clearly takes more than just one year to do.
  • Iowa State and Oklahoma State play conference foes Kansas and Baylor respectively. With how the Big 12 has been going, either team could pull off the upset.
  • North Dakota State will look to continue its undefeated season as they play a Youngstown State team coached by Bo Pelini, former Nebraska head coach.

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