The Big 12 empire
Through Week 7 · Sun, Oct 18
Every county in the lower 48 started the season with its nearest Big 12 school, measured to the home stadium; the dot in each territory is that stadium. When two Big 12 teams play, the winner takes everything the loser holds at that moment, not only the loser's own land. A team that has lost it all is out until it beats whoever holds some, and only games between two Big 12 teams count, because nobody else holds land to win. Outlined territories changed hands in the week shown. 10 of the sixteen hold nothing right now.
Who holds what
| Team | Share of the map | Territories held | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Utah | 28.9% | Iowa State, Utah |
| 2 |  TCU | 22.0% | Arizona State, Baylor, Colorado, Kansas |
| 3 |  Houston | 20.6% | Oklahoma State, TCU, UCF, West Virginia |
| 4 |  Arizona | 12.0% | Cincinnati, Kansas State |
| 5 |  Texas Tech | 10.5% | Houston, Texas Tech |
| 6 |  BYU | 6.0% | Arizona, BYU |
 Arizona State | 0.0% | none, out until it wins | |
 Baylor | 0.0% | none, out until it wins | |
 Cincinnati | 0.0% | none, out until it wins | |
 Colorado | 0.0% | none, out until it wins | |
 Iowa State | 0.0% | none, out until it wins | |
 Kansas | 0.0% | none, out until it wins | |
 Kansas State | 0.0% | none, out until it wins | |
 Oklahoma State | 0.0% | none, out until it wins | |
 UCF | 0.0% | none, out until it wins | |
 West Virginia | 0.0% | none, out until it wins |
Share is land area, from an equal-area projection, so a county in the Mountain West counts for what it covers. Each territory is named for the school it started with.
How it moved
- Week 7
- West Virginia beat Cincinnati (it held nothing to take)
- Kansas State beat Kansas (it held nothing to take)
- Texas Tech beat Arizona State (it held nothing to take)
- TCU beat Baylor and took Arizona State, Baylor, Colorado, Kansas (22.0% of the map)
- Houston beat Oklahoma State and took Oklahoma State, West Virginia (13.6% of the map)
- Utah beat Colorado (it held nothing to take)
- Week 6
- BYU beat Iowa State (it held nothing to take)
- Arizona beat West Virginia (it held nothing to take)
- Oklahoma State beat UCF (it held nothing to take)
- Houston beat Kansas State (it held nothing to take)
- Utah beat Kansas (it held nothing to take)
- Week 5
- Houston beat UCF and took TCU, UCF (6.9% of the map)
- Iowa State beat West Virginia (it held nothing to take)
- BYU beat TCU (it held nothing to take)
- Texas Tech beat Colorado (it held nothing to take)
- Baylor beat Arizona State and took Arizona State, Kansas (9.4% of the map)
- Arizona beat Cincinnati and took Cincinnati, Kansas State (12.0% of the map)
- Week 4
- Baylor beat Colorado and took Colorado (10.6% of the map)
- UCF beat TCU and took TCU (2.1% of the map)
- Utah beat Iowa State and took Iowa State (11.2% of the map)
- Cincinnati beat Kansas State and took Kansas State (2.6% of the map)
- Oklahoma State beat West Virginia and took West Virginia (10.2% of the map)
- Week 3
- Texas Tech beat Houston and took Houston (4.8% of the map)
- Arizona State beat Kansas and took Kansas (3.0% of the map)
- Week 2
Share the map
An image of the map, drawn after every week of Big 12 games. Each week keeps its own address, so a post made now still shows this week later in the season.
- This week, permanently
https://big12ology.com/season/cards/2026/empire-week-07.png- Whatever week is current
https://big12ology.com/season/cards/empire.png
Swap .png for .svg on either. Every
earlier week is there too: /season/cards/2026/ followed
by empire-start or empire-week-NN, as in
empire-week-07.