2007 is widely regarded as the greatest season of college football ever.

It was full of upsets and unlikely teams winning, and nearly every team in the top 10 would’ve had some sort of claim to have been in a hypothetical Playoff.

Here at SB Nation, we decided to take one of our popular features, the weekly College Football Empires Map, and apply it to 2007.

How does the College Football Empires Map work?

Each FBS team is given a territory to begin the season, and if they lose, the team that beats them takes their land. Teams are then always in the process of trying to either regain land or expand their land by beating teams that have it.

The territories for each team are determined by which school is closest in straight-line distance to the geometric center of each county.

Because this is about 2007 only, teams that were FBS in 2007 make up the original map.

Week 1

• No. 15 Tennessee loses by two touchdowns to No. 12 Cal.
• No. 18 Florida State loses close to a Clemson that would finish ranked.
• Only two ranked upsets? What kind of “craziest season ever” is this?
• There’s a third.

Upset of the Week

No. 5 Michigan hosts a motivated militia from the mountains. Michigan enters as a 33-point favorite over Appalachian State, supposed to destroy the Mountaineers.

Things don’t go as planned. The Mountaineers jump out to a 28-17 lead at halftime. Michigan battles back and lines up to kick a field goal to go up 4 in the final minutes, but Appalachian State blocks it and executes a 69-yard drive to retake the lead.

Michigan again lines up for a kick. But Appalachian State blocks it again to win what many consider the greatest upset of all time.

App State, despite being an FCS team and thus starting with no land, now controls Ann Arbor:

Week 2

• No. 2 LSU blows out No. 9 Virginia Tech and gains control of the Hokies’ and ECU Pirates’ homelands.
• Unranked South Carolina, coached by Georgia nemesis Steve Spurrier, defeats No. 11 UGA. South Carolina gains Athens and Oklahoma State. The loss will eventually help keep the Dawgs from a BCS title shot.

• Unranked USF stuns No. 17 Auburn after kicking a field goal with a minute left to force overtime, where USF takes over Auburn and Kansas State’s land as well.

Upset of the Week

No. 22 Boise State enters on a 14-game winning streak. Washington, led by redshirt freshman Jake Locker, defeats the Broncos comfortably to take a large portion of the West.

Week 3

• No. 1 USC cruises past No. 14 Nebraska and takes the lands of Nebraska and Nevada.
• No. 5 Florida extends its winning streak over No. 22 Tennessee to three and claims Southern Miss.
• No. 21 Boston College defeats No. 15 Georgia Tech to conquer Atlanta, where BC QB Matt Ryan will move a few months later anyway, as well as Notre Dame’s land.
• Nick Saban’s unranked Alabama defeats No. 16 Arkansas with a touchdown with eight seconds left and takes captive the natives of Arkansas and Troy.

Upset of the Week

Kentucky hits No. 9 Louisville with a 57-yard touchdown pass with 28 seconds left, completing UK’s first top-10 win in decades.

Week 4

• No. 20 Texas A&M is upset by unranked Miami, putting UNLV and part of East Texas under new management.
• No. 2 LSU continues to comfortably win, beating No. 12 South Carolina and doubling the size of Les Miles’ empire, also taking Georgia, Oklahoma State, and UL Lafayette.
• No. 10 Penn State is upset by the wandering Michigan nomads who remain banished from Ann Arbor. Michigan gains Happy Valley and FIU.
• No. 22 Georgia defeats No. 16 Alabama in overtime and takes Tuscaloosa, Troy, Vanderbilt, and Arkansas,
• Appalachian State’s claim to Ann Arbor begins circulating throughout FCS, with Wofford taking over.

Upset of the Week

Winless Syracuse hands No. 18 Louisville a second straight loss. Syracuse unfortunately doesn’t receive any spoils of war, due to Kentucky taking all of Louisville’s land the previous week. In a season full of memorable upsets, this relatively forgettable one is actually one of the biggest ever: Louisville was a 37.5-point favorite.

Week 5

OK, here we go.

• No. 18 USF defeats No. 5 West Virginia to take Western Michigan and Morgantown.
• Auburn upsets No. 4 Florida with a field goal as time expires, winning Western Kentucky, Southern Miss, and Gainesville.
• Kansas State destroys No. 7 Texas as Colt McCoy throws four interceptions. Kansas State takes the land of three different Texas schools, plus NC State and UCF.
• Maryland hands No. 10 Rutgers its first loss, and yes, Rutgers used to be favored in games. Syracuse, Rutgers, and Navy fell into the claws of the Terrapins.
• Georgia Tech holds No. 13 Clemson to three points and captures Clemson and Florida State.

Upset of the Week

• No. 3 Oklahoma is upset by Colorado after allowing 20 straight points. OU loses ULM, Tulsa, North Texas, and Marshall, plus Norman itself.

Week 6

• No. 11 South Carolina hands No. 8 Kentucky its first loss and takes the Bluegrass State, plus Iowa State and a whole lot of MAC country: Ball State, Miami (Ohio), and Kent State.
• Tennessee destroys No. 12 Georgia and takes Alabama, South Alabama, Arkansas, and Vanderbilt.
• Kansas surprises No. 24 Kansas State to hit 5-0, forming an empire with land in Texas, Florida, Arkansas, and Michigan.
• Illinois, led by Rashard Mendenhall, beats No. 5 Wisconsin and steals seven territories, and that’s not even the Upset of the Week!

Upset of the Week

No. 2 USC enters against Stanford as a 39-point favorite, meaning this will be the biggest point spread upset in football history until 2017. This game re-introduces the world to Jim Harbaugh, as he outmatches his new rival Pete Carroll and gathers several Western territories.

Week 7

• No. 17 Kentucky stuns LSU with the first loss by a No. 1 this season, taking territories scattered throughout the Southeast.
• No. 6 Oklahoma hands No. 11 Missouri its first loss, staking claim to Missouri, Illinois, and Memphis
• Louisville finally ends up on the right side of an upset, invading No. 15 Cincinnati and also claiming Utah and Oregon State.
• From No. 18 Illinois, Iowa captures all the land the Illini just took from Wisconsin.

Upset of the week

Fourteen-point underdog Oregon State hands No. 2 Cal its first loss. This is the second loss by a No. 2 team this season, with many more to come. Oregon State relocates its headquarters down the street to rival Oregon’s and adds Cal’s and Houston’s.

Week 8

• The curse of No. 2 continues for a third straight week with Rutgers’ win over USF, giving the Scarlet Knights land all throughout America.

• No. 4 LSU beats No. 17 Auburn in a bizarre thriller and claims Florida, Southern Miss, and Western Kentucky.
• No. 15 Florida makes it 21 straight wins over Kentucky (No. 7), with a whole decade still to go, and takes the land UK took from LSU.
• No. 16 Missouri wins big over No. 24 Texas Tech to take New Mexico and Western Texas.
• Alabama beats No. 21 Tennessee to start a rivalry streak that will continue indefinitely and takes back the territory it had lost to Georgia.

Upset of the Week

With zero points scored by either team in the second half, Vanderbilt sinks No. 6 South Carolina and commandeers seven territories.

Week 9

• No. 2 Boston College scores two fourth-quarter touchdowns to defeat No. 8 Virginia Tech and take Ohio’s homeland, which will eventually keep the Hokies out of the BCS title game.
• No. 23 UConn gives No. 10 USF its second consecutive loss, gaining no land.
• No. 18 Georgia hands Tim Tebow’s No. 11 Gators their third loss, capturing territory and setting up a 2008 revenge campaign.

Upset of the Week

3-5 NC State shocks No. 15 Virginia, planting the Wolfpack flag all over the Eastern United States

Week 10

• Saban’s No. 17 Alabama goes head to head with his former team, but No. 3 LSU comes out on top and continues to rebuild its empire.
• In (somehow) the first top-five matchup of the season, No. 5 Oregon delivers No. 4 Arizona State its first loss and finds its way back on the map, taking Tempe, UNLV, Colorado, and Colorado State.
• No. 23 UVA squeaks past No. 24 Wake Forest to find some land near the Great Lakes.
• Ann Arbor will finish 2007 in FCS hands, with Furman taking it from Elon and then missing the FCS playoffs.

Upset of the Week

Down goes No. 2 again. Florida State pulls off the upset over Boston College, propelled by three Ryan interceptions.

The Noles are back on the map.

Week 11

It gets way weirder.

• No. 8 Boston College loses a second consecutive game to an unranked opponent, Maryland, which gains no land.
• Let’s check in on No. 12 Michigan after its disastrous start. The Wolverines’ eight-game winning streak is snapped by Wisconsin, with two late touchdowns from running back Zach Brown delivering FIU and Penn State to UW.
• The Big East continues to cannibalize itself with Cincinnati dealing No. 13 UConn its second loss, with UC regaining control of its homeland and the territory it’d lost to Louisville.

Upset of the Week

Unranked Illinois, led by quarterback Juice Williams, triumphs over Ohio State, marking the end of a 28-game regular season win streak and giving Illinois its first win over a No. 1 team since 1956. The 15.5-point underdogs take several territories, most importantly Alaska and its endless acreage.

Week 12

• Tragedy strikes as No. 2 Oregon loses Heisman favorite Dennis Dixon to a knee injury against Arizona. The Wildcats take rival Arizona State’s home, as well as land in Colorado and California.

• No. 6 West Virginia tops the No. 22 Bearcats to establish the Mountaineers as clear favorites to win the Big East and rulers over Utah, Oregon State, and Cincinnati.
• Please never forget Nick Saban lost to a 4-6 ULM as a 24.5-point favorite.

Upset of the Week

Texas Tech puts up 27 points in the first half to defeat No. 4 Oklahoma, presumably knocking OU out of the BCS title race and annexing Missouri, Illinois, and Memphis.

Week 13

It gets weirder still.

• No. 11 USC previews the weekend with a 20-point domination of No. 6 Arizona State on Thursday night.
• Texas A&M puts up over 500 yards of offense in a win over No. 13 Texas and gains control of Oklahoma, Tulsa, and the same ULM that just beat Alabama.
• Colt Brennan throws for five touchdowns in No. 15 Hawaii’s win over No. 19 Boise State. The undefeated Rainbow Warriors clinch the WAC title and now have nine separate pieces of land, one of them among the largest on the map.

• No. 2 Kansas vs. No. 4 Missouri. In football. Mizzou jumps out to a 21-0 lead, and Kansas’ comeback falls short. Missouri wins the Border War and now controls almost all of Texas’ border with Mexico.

• No. 9 Oregon doesn’t look the same without Dixon and is unable to score a single point against UCLA, ending hopes of a Rose Bowl.

Upset of the Week

No. 1 LSU suffers its second triple-overtime loss, this time against an unranked Arkansas that was a 14-point underdog. Championship hopes are all but gone for the two-loss Tigers.

Week 14

Does it get even weirder? Yes.

• No. 9 Oklahoma has one mission in the Big 12 Championship: end No. 1 Missouri’s title hopes. The Sooners do so, taking huge tracts of land and opening up a spot for landless Ohio State in the BCS Championship, likely opposite West Virginia. Once WVU gets past Pitt, the Buckeyes can at least take WVU’s land and have somewhere to store the trophy, right?
• No. 6 Virginia Tech wins the rematch against No. 11 Boston College to take the ACC and finish third in the final BCS ranking.
• No. 7 LSU beats No. 14 Tennessee with a fourth-quarter pick six to win the SEC, then waits to see whether Pitt can pull off an impossible miracle against West Virginia.

Upset of the Century

All No. 2 West Virginia has to do is beat a 4-7 Pitt, and the Eers will be the No. 1 team in the country on their way to the national championship game.

But the curse of No. 2 isn’t finished.

Despite being a 28.5-point underdog, Pitt wins 13-9, giving up an intentional safety as time expires to remove their rivals from the national championship game. The Panthers then evacuate the season with all of West Virginia’s land, because Pitt won’t have to put any of it on the line in a bowl game.

Pitt would later do the exact same thing with loads of Miami’s land in 2017.

Bowl season

• No. 6 Missouri takes a chunk of SEC land from Arkansas into the Big 12. Mizzou will bring it back in a few years.
• No. 14 Boston College beats Michigan State and takes over a northern realm that had been passing around the Big Ten all season.
• No. 5 Georgia stomps WAC champion No. 10 Hawaii to finish 2007 with one of the largest empires.
• Pac-10 champ No. 7 USC defeats No. 13 Illinois in the Rose Bowl and expands its West Coast territory.
• No. 16 Tennessee takes FIU and Penn State from No. 18 Wisconsin.
• Aqib Talib starts the scoring with a pick six against Tyrod Taylor’s No. 3 Hokies, and the No. 8 Jayhawks take five territories from Virginia Tech.
• In a matchup between future Big 12 opponents, No. 9 West Virginia upsets No. 4 Oklahoma to leave fans wondering what could have been. The Mountaineers finish with a nice consolation prize: the largest continuous piece of land in the continental US.
• No. 19 Texas jumps out to a large lead over No. 11 Arizona State and snags land.
• Michigan finishes a disappointing season on a high note by taking six territories from No. 12 Florida.

The BCS Championship

No. 2 LSU defeats No. 1 Ohio State and miraculously adds no land to no land. The Tigers win the national title despite having not a single county to call their own, and no Empires Map outcome could’ve summed up the 2007 season more perfectly. With nowhere else to put the crystal football, Les Miles takes it into outer space.

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The 2007 season and all of its upsets are over, but this leads to the question: how long will it take for the map to converge to one team?

The rest of this article answers that question by using the final map of every season until one team controls everything. Can you guess which team it’ll be?

End of 2008

Utah

• Michigan’s land goes to Utah
• USC’s land goes to Oregon State and then to Utah
• Tennessee -> UCLA -> BYU -> TCU -> Utah
• BYU -> TCU -> Utah
• Ohio -> Wyoming -> Air Force -> Utah

Florida

• Boston College -> Georgia Tech -> Virginia Tech -> Boston College -> North Carolina -> Maryland -> Florida State -> Florida
• Georgia -> Alabama -> Florida
• Texas -> Texas Tech -> Oklahoma -> Florida
• Missouri -> Oklahoma State -> Texas -> Texas Tech -> Oklahoma -> Florida
• Texas Tech -> Oklahoma -> Florida
• Furman -> Virginia Tech (finally bringing Ann Arbor back into FBS) -> Boston College -> North Carolina -> Maryland -> Florida State -> Florida

Rutgers

• West Virginia -> ECU -> NC State -> USF -> Pitt -> Rutgers
• Wake Forest -> Navy -> Pitt -> Rutgers
• Kansas -> USF -> Pitt -> Rutgers

USC

• Pitt -> Bowling Green -> Minnesota -> Ohio State -> Penn State -> USC
• Penn State -> USC

End of 2009

Washington

• Utah -> Oregon -> Stanford -> California -> Washington
• USC -> Washington -> Stanford -> Oregon State -> USC -> Oregon -> Stanford -> California -> Washington

Alabama

• Florida -> Alabama

Florida

• Rutgers -> Cincinnati -> Florida

End of 2010

Auburn

• Alabama -> South Carolina -> Kentucky -> Georgia -> Florida -> South Carolina -> Auburn
• Florida -> Alabama -> South Carolina -> Kentucky -> Georgia -> Florida -> South Carolina -> Auburn

LSU

• Washington -> BYU -> Air Force -> Oklahoma -> Missouri -> Nebraska -> Texas A&M -> LSU

End of 2011

Alabama

• LSU -> Alabama

West Virginia

• Auburn -> Clemson -> Georgia Tech -> Virginia Tech -> Clemson -> West Virginia

End of 2012

Texas A&M

• Alabama -> Texas A&M

Baylor

• West Virginia -> Texas Tech -> Kansas State -> Baylor

End of 2013

Florida State

• Texas A&M -> Alabama -> Auburn -> Florida State

Oklahoma

• Baylor -> Oklahoma State -> Oklahoma

End of 2014

Ohio State

• Florida State -> Oregon -> Ohio State

TCU

• Oklahoma -> TCU -> Baylor -> West Virginia -> TCU

End of 2015

Alabama

• Ohio State -> Michigan State -> Alabama

TCU

• TCU -> Oklahoma State -> Baylor -> TCU

The map finally converges on Oct. 22, 2016

• TCU -> Arkansas -> Texas A&M
• Oct. 22, 2016: No. 6 Texas A&M goes to Tuscaloosa to face No. 1 Alabama with the entire country on the line. A&M goes down early, but shows some life after halftime to take a 14-13 lead. Alabama puts up 20 points unanswered to win the game and converge the map to a single team, all just 3,262 days after Bama lost to ULM.

The progression from 2007 to completion: