xtramelanin

September 11th, 2017 at 11:47 AM ^

throws the math way, way off since Alaska is by far the largest state.  the UAF nanooks don't have a football team as far as i'm aware.  

LSAClassOf2000

September 11th, 2017 at 11:54 AM ^

It is definitely an interesting map (I must have missed week 1 - my bad), although if we think of it like Risk, what if Iowa, Wisconsin and Washington State form an unofficial alliance, take out UNLV, and then Iowa combines its territories to take on Minnesota, effectively cutting off both parts of Wisconsin's territory. That's how you win the BIg Ten West, right?

Whole Milk

September 11th, 2017 at 12:06 PM ^

It looks like that week 4 matchup of Minnesota vs. Maryland will have some serious nationwide stakes in the imperialistic scenario.

 

EDIT: In real life, not nearly as much.

DualThreat

September 11th, 2017 at 12:06 PM ^

Wouldn't it be nice to own Minnesota's big chunk of land and see a big maize block M owning the north?   Looking at both Minn and Michigan's schedules, though, this would only happen if both Minn and Michigan win out and Michigan wins that contest.  All of Minnesota's opponents prior to the game against us would not allow us to take this land until we actually play Minnestoa.  Interesting.

joeyb

September 11th, 2017 at 2:09 PM ^

Minnesota could beat every team leading up to us. I would say Iowa is most likely to steal their land away the weak before we play them and we don't play Iowa. Iowa plays Wisconsin and OSU after that game and before we play either of them, so we could get that Minnesota land by beating one of those two (or Iowa in the B1G championship game if Iowa beats both of them).

NittanyFan

September 11th, 2017 at 12:15 PM ^

the portion of Southeast Michigan (including Wayne, Oakland and Macomb) that Eastern Michigan currently holds has a good chance of ending the regular season in SEC and ACC hands.

Eastern Michigan next hosts Ohio at home.  Assuming EMU wins that, they then play at Kentucky.  That's probably a loss - the SEC would then likely swap that land around for October and November (potentially losing it in the last week, when there are a bunch of ACC/SEC games).

NRK

September 11th, 2017 at 12:16 PM ^

This is a really interesting concept and something I'll enjoy following for the fun of it, but the whole "closest campus" thing kind of starts it in a weird spot to start from. It'd be better if beating a team with more power/gravitas/etc. carried more than just the closest stadium or whoever else they beat.

 

Wyoming had a ton of land because its in the middle of nowhere. Cool. But now because they lost week 1 from the purely visual perspective you glance at the map and Iowa and Minnesota (because there aren't many other close FBS schools) appear so dominant despite the fact that they've beat Wyoming/Iowa State (barely) and Buffalo/Oregon State, respectively. I get it will change, it's just the location thing makes it deceptive when visualizing.

 

Anyway, it's for fun, so cool concept, even if I'll nitpick the execution.

Leaders And Best

September 11th, 2017 at 4:27 PM ^

Not sure this is true. Just looking at this quickly, it seems the most important thing is for your conference to win their non-conference games, especially with most nonconference games stacked in the first weeks of the season. Losing within the conference early can be made up because of a lot of round robin play. But if you lose territory in the non-conference season, that territory will most likely stay out of reach until the playoff or possibly never.

If Minnesota were to lose to MTSU this weekend, Minnesota's territory would most likely remain within Conference USA until bowl season. If Illinois were to lose to USF this week, their territory would most likely remain in the AAC until bowl season. A Wisconsin loss to BYU would have a similar effect as BYU's schedule would not overlap with the Big Ten. Big Ten fans should be rooting for Minnesota, Illinois, and Wisconsin to win those games, and for Maryland to win next week against UCF to keep their territory within the Big Ten.