NFL Empires: 1920

Somewhat late to the game, I recently saw "empire" maps for professional and college sports, where victors take the territory of the losers. They seem to usually be reset every year, since they get dominated by a few teams, or just one. But I decided it made more sense that the victor only gets territory for an away victory (and not winning at home), and instead of all the land, just two-thirds (and one-third for an away tie).

I thus decided I had to do this with a long-existing league and start at the very beginning. I chose the NFL because it has good data and few games. (I got my data from Pro Football Reference and most of the logos from Sports Ecyclopedia.)

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1920 season (when it was called the APFA):

Akron was the official champion that year, and it shows on the map. Since all the teams were crowded in the Midwest, big swaths of land in the West and South changed hands rather quickly.

Here is the map at the beginning of the 1920 season:

Ah, poor Rock Island.