College Football Empires

[RedRocks]

Not sure if any of you have been following this strangely interesting map/article series, but the Utes are back on the map after defeating USC.

Article/Map

[Chidojuan]

If Stanford wins out, we own the Western United States.

[Chidojuan]

Unless Ohio State wins out, then the North belongs to Purdue.

[AlohaUte]

Not how it works, anything Stanford wins moving forward Stanford keeps. It doesn’t come to us just because we already beat them. Or I’m misunderstanding your comment and you are suggesting that we win out and beat Stanford in the Pac-12 CG and we’d thus won all of Stanford’s acquired territory.

[Chidojuan]

I must have overlooked that part, it’s easy to get into the nutty details when Occam’s Razor would be a better approach.

[Central Coast Ute]

Only if we beat Stanford in the CCG.

[COFfrom83]

so under this arrangement we have nothing to gain this week, since UCLA has no land, we just have to protect what’s ours?

[RedRocks]

You are correct; nothing to gain this week at UCLA.  There probably won’t be any more opportunities for “us” to gain land until the PAC12 championship game, if we are so fortunate.

[Central Coast Ute]

Colorado would have to beat WSU, who would have to go undefeated until they play Colorado and then we would have to beat Colorado in order for the Utes ty gain anymore land.

[Chidojuan]

Correct, and if we lose, then all of our land goes to Michigan if I’m not mistaken.

[Chidojuan]

Nope, I was wrong, Notre Dame will own it all.

[Utahute72]

Shouldn’t it go to UCLA until someone beats them later and takes it from them.  It should play forward, not backward.

 

[Chidojuan]

It’s sort of a quantum map.  So if we lose, our territory goes to UCLA, but they lost to Cincinatti in the first week, so they never owned any land, and Temple took it from them this last weekend, but Temple was owned by Villanova in week 1, who was owned by Towson in week 3, but already belonged to Wake forest in week two.  So at this point, Wake Forest owns UCLA, but they lost to Boston College in week 3, who then lost the land to Purdue, but Purdue was already owned by Northwestern in week 1, but Northwestern belonged to Duke in week 2.  So up till week 5, Duke is undefeated and owns UCLA.  Duke loses their land to Virginia Tech in week 5, but Virginia Tech already belonged to Old Dominion in week 4, who belonged to Liberty in week 1.  Here’s the paradox:  Liberty had lost to Army in week 2, who lost to Duke in week 1, who was owned by Virginia Tech until Old dominion took them, so we get an endless loop and have to go to the team that has beaten the most opponents in that area, which is Notre Dame, who beat Virginia Tech and Michigan, who beat Northwestern.  Is that it?  I think that’s it.

[Tony (admin)]

Yahtzee!

[teepee]

I don’t think so. From the article you linked it says “Each game that involves one or two teams with territory results in the winner claiming all of it” so the winner of the game on Friday claims all of our land.
First week games make no difference. Hence Purdue took Ohio State’s land even though they lost their season opener to Northwestern.

[Wilson’s Mustache]

This is not how it works at all. Think about it, how would Utah have territory otherwise?

[Chidojuan]

I’m probably reading too much into it.  Just the ravings of a madman.

[Stone]

I don’t know that I understand the map, but here is my interpretation:

Utah can only acquire territory if it beats a team that currently owns territory. There is no backward looking component. Utah does not play any more teams on its schedule that owns territory (WSU owns territory, which Utah could acquire if they met in the Pac12 champtionship). And if Utah were to meet a team in a bowl game, that team might have territory. But those are the only opportunities for Utah to gain territory at this point. Utah will lose all territory if the team loses again. The other opportunity that *can* arise is if a future opponent that does not currently have territory acquires territory. But since the Pac12 games going forward are mostly all conference games, and Utah and WSU are the only teams with territory, the opportunity for gains is limited.

So USC could still beat Notre Dame and get all of Notre Dame’s territory, but it does not just automatically go to Utah, despite Utah beating USC, because USC did not have that territory when Utah beat USC (otherwise, every team that had previously beat USC would have equal claim to that territory).

[RedRocks]

This is correct. What happened in the past has no relevance to land gained/lost in the future. Just think of real-life imperialism; if you defeat someone, you take all their currently possessed stuff. If someone beats you, they take all of your currently possessed stuff. If you defeat someone who has no stuff, you get no stuff. If you defeat everyone, you get all the things. But in this case, only if you do it in the correct order ;).

[Central Coast Ute]

Utah can gain territory from Colorado if Colorado beats WSU when they play, assuming WSU doesn’t lose before then. That’s one way the Utes can gain land prior to the CCG