College Football Imperialism Week 5

Submitted by UNCWolverine on

With a bye Michigan unfotunately gained no land this week. Also no land can be gained by beating MSU as they gave all of theirs to ND the previous week, while gaining none with their win over a land-less Iowa.

Explanation per Reddit OP: What if College Football games were actually battles for land? This map answers this question. The original map is my closest FBS team to every county, but if a team is beaten their land is taken by the team that beat them. Teams will keep their land until beaten by another team and then all land will be passed to the new winner. 

Week 5 Map

 

Progressive Map gif

 

Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/CFB/comments/73sc1m/college_football_imperiali…

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UNCWolverine

October 2nd, 2017 at 12:29 PM ^

Precisely. Every week when I borrow this map to post for the board there are a few posters that can't seem to enjoy it for what it is. For example after we beat MSU and gain no land people will be frustrated. It is what it is...

Joined: 10/06/2008

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J.

October 2nd, 2017 at 12:45 PM ^

It doesn't match expectations.  I'd like it to coalesce, so that by the playoff, the four playoff teams own all of the land.  That doesn't seem to be happening, and I don't see a scenario by which it happens, because you're going to have random land owned by whoever gets upsets at the right time.

Joined: 03/11/2012

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Bambi

October 2nd, 2017 at 12:50 PM ^

I mean that's probably possible but it's not the point of this map. Like at the end the winner will have all the land, woohoo. This way you get to see the progression of land over the course of the season and see which pockets remain untouched. Also despite saying it's probably possible, I don't see how it can be done based on H2H matchups. Some land will just literally never come in contact with the final 4 between G5 conferences ajd the left out P5 conference. The only way to do it is just split up the land between the final 4 which is no fun. There is a weekly weighted top 25 post which is the closest thing to what you want.

Joined: 10/12/2013

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Thread Jack

October 2nd, 2017 at 1:48 PM ^

... would be to have a "conquered" team serve as the conquering team's vassals, and any territory they gain becomes their liege's territory.  And when a conquering team subsequently loses, all their vassals become vassals of the new conqueror.  So only undefeated teams gain territory. 

Of course, there are still problems:  what happens when a team incurs multiple losses?  Are they simply the vassal of the latest conqueror? And what about their prior vassals?  Do they switch sides to the newly conquering team (or their liege), too?

I'm not complaining about the current visualization -- I find it interesting.  For instance, because of the way that things work, we now have to wait until we play PSU to (hopefully) gain any territory.  Unless, of course, PSU loses to Northwestern next week (and we still beat PSU), in which case, we still can't gain territory until later. 

Joined: 02/01/2017

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NittanyFan

October 2nd, 2017 at 1:07 PM ^

there are theoretically better algorithms --- I posted one here last week that incorporated this idea but was also iterative.  But those algorithms are also more complicated and/or have their own issues.  My algorithm would have literally had an "infinite loop" for some land at the end of 2016!

Late-season upsets do matter A LOT here.  Northwestern (beat Pitt who beat Clemson) owned a ton of land at the end of 2016.  1-10 TCU owned a decent chunk of land at the end of the 1997 season.

Is what it is.

Joined: 12/04/2012

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J.

October 2nd, 2017 at 12:46 PM ^

That's not true at all.  All they have to do is to win a game over a team that has land.  In fact, Brhino is correct -- Florida does have a bunch of land.  They just don't have Gainesville.

Joined: 03/11/2012

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oriental andrew

October 2nd, 2017 at 1:15 PM ^

msu could theoretically take Michigan's land. theoretically. When Michigan wins, though, no additional land.

Northwestern could theoretically take penn state's land. Northwestern has no land, so penn state won't be adding to it's empire.

Wisconsin take on landless Nebraska, which has stunk it up so far. Should wisco win, no new land. 

The big land grab for this week comes down to ohio state and Maryland. The winner of that game should be safely in 2nd place for overall land area and top 5 for population. 

 

Joined: 06/30/2008

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LSAClassOf2000

October 2nd, 2017 at 1:23 PM ^

This Saturday is our chance to take vital portions of the US-127 and I-69 / 96 corridor from Notre Dame by beating the Spartans, I would say, or even if we don't get it back by rule, at least make a significant incursion into Ingham County. If everything aligns on this, then we can hem in Ohio University and take back most of Metro Detroit, which really belongs to us anyway, let's face it. 

Joined: 01/07/2011

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Ecky Pting

October 2nd, 2017 at 2:23 PM ^

It's a different sort of contest. It's looking like this weekend the OSU vs. Maryland game is going to consolidate a good chunk of land and people into the winner's domain, of which it will become the master. The loser, most likely Maryland, will be out, while OSU will continue to be the Master of its Domain.

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