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The College Football Empires Map, where Alabama and Notre Dame advance toward each other

The rules: Every FBS team started with land, and every week winners take more and more. We’ve kept track all year long.

By Nathan Bingham

Welcome to Week 10 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 after Week 10, with notes to follow.

Land exchanges in Week 10

  • The Fighting Irish continued their fight to take over the map as they defeated Northwestern, consolidating control of Indiana and gaining Northern Virginia and Southern Florida.
  • Alabama finally deployed its full forces and completely demolished LSU. Alabama clinched the SEC West, extended its capital realm up the Mississippi River, and gained land in Georgia and South Carolina.
  • UCF continued its nation-long win streak with a 12-point win over Temple on Thursday night. The Knights expanded their kingdom, gaining the home territories of UCLA, Florida State, Virginia Tech, and Cincinnati.
  • Arizona State defeated Utah to take control of the Northern Plains and also make the Pac-12 South even more confusing.
  • In weather conditions that forced a 90-minute cease fire, the SMU Mustangs were able to finish off the ranked Houston Cougars to take over four territories.
  • Baylor pulled off a last-second victory over the Cowboys of Oklahoma State to win land in Oklahoma, Colorado, Maryland, Florida, and Hawaii.
  • The minutemen of UMass fought a long battle against Liberty before prevailing in overtime to take UAB’s homeland.
  • After an emotional top-25 win over Appalachian State, Georgia Southern was not able to handle Louisiana-Monroe. ULM took over the homeland of Charlotte and is now the only team in the Sun Belt Conference with land.
  • Pitt defeated Virginia to gain control of two equally important things: the ACC Coastal and Toledo.

The biggest battles of next week

  • Mississippi State will look to stay within four touchdowns of Alabama. The winner of this game will hold almost all of Mississippi and parts of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Michigan, Kansas, and Kentucky and will land in the top five in each of the ranking categories
  • Iowa State will look to keep its Big 12 championship hopes alive as it takes on Baylor. The winner will hold most of Oklahoma as well as many other territories scattered throughout the country.

This week also features three top-25 matchups where at least one team has land:

  • Clemson takes territory into a game against Boston College. Both teams currently control their own destinies.
  • Michigan State and Ohio State will play for the land Purdue took from Ohio State two weeks ago. The loser will be eliminated from B1G contention, with the winner needing Michigan to lose several to have a chance.
  • Delaware and Stony Brook take on each other in a likely top-25 FCS showdown for possession of the Temple land that Villanova brought into the FCS.

The entire season to this point:

Stats!

Territories

1. Notre Dame- 21
t2. Michigan State and Clemson- 12
4. Alabama- 11
t5. Iowa State, Baylor, UCF, and Washington State- 8

Counties

  1. Alabama - 367
  2. Notre Dame - 313
  3. Michigan - 306
  4. Arizona State - 268
  5. Clemson - 250

Population

  1. Notre Dame - 65,906,571
  2. Michigan State - 44,483,938
  3. Clemson - 24,114,545
  4. UCF - 18,263,131
  5. Washington State - 16,463,931

Land Area (sq. miles)

  1. Georgia - 700,256
  2. Arizona State - 454,000
  3. Notre Dame - 353,924
  4. Michigan - 281,653
  5. Washington State - 258,252

I’m also maintaining a separate map, which began in 2017 and has carried over into 2018.

  • On the Historic Map, SMU beat Houston in one of the largest upsets this season and won possession of land in Texas, Oklahoma, Indiana, and Ohio.
  • Baylor defeated Oklahoma State to take the land the Cowboys had just taken from Texas. They now own the homelands of UAB and Coastal Carolina.
  • UCF defeated Temple to expand their territory in Texas.

Historic Map games next week:

  • Alabama will attempt to annihilate Mississippi State and protect their 2017 land.
  • Iowa State-Baylor will result in land being consolidated, taking us down to only eight teams left on the Historic Map. This might be the last consolidation game before conference championship weekend.
  • Michigan State will attempt to defend its nation-leading empire against the Ohio State uprising, which is trying to take back all the land it gathered before its loss to Purdue.
  • UConn will look for their first FBS win this season against SMU.
  • UCF will look for win number 22 as they take on the triple option of Navy.
  • Georgia and Auburn will face off in the Deep South’s Oldest Rivalry on Saturday. Auburn will look to ruin Georgia’s playoff hopes in a rematch of last year’s SEC Championship.
  • Florida State will look to upset Notre Dame and hand them their first loss of the season. Florida State needs to win two of their last three games to continue their bowl streak.
  • North Dakota State will be heavy favorites over Missouri State. Missouri State has not beaten North Dakota State since 2010 when they won 3-0.

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