NFL Empires: 1965

This is a continuation of my "empire" maps (where victors take the territory of the losers) of the NFL. Different than most such imperialism sports maps, instead of gaining all the loser's land from a victory home or away, the victor only gets territory for an away victory, and just two-thirds of it (or one-third for an away tie).

There were no changes to the teams from the previous season.

My data was from Pro Football Reference and most of the logos from SportsLogos.net and Sports Ecyclopedia.

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1965 season:

The big three on the map (Green Bay (kelly green), San Francisco (burgundy) and Minnesota (violet), came in first, fourth and fifth place, respectively, in the Western Conference. Green Bay beat Baltimore (medium blue) in a playoff game, then Cleveland (brown) in the championship game, but both were played in Green Bay so no land was won. Baltimore ended their season with home losses to Green Bay and Chicago (light blue), so they managed to shrink their empire despite their place in the standings. In the East, Dallas (gray green) and New York (dark blue) tied for second place, but both only managed minimal gains.

Here is the map before the season started:

Goodbye, Detroit. Goodbye, St. Louis!

NFL Empires: 1964

This is a continuation of my "empire" maps (where victors take the territory of the losers) of the NFL. Different than most such imperialism sports maps, instead of gaining all the loser's land from a victory home or away, the victor only gets territory for an away victory, and just two-thirds of it (or one-third for an away tie).

There were no changes to the teams from the previous season.

My data was from Pro Football Reference and most of the logos from SportsLogos.net and Sports Ecyclopedia.

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1964 season:

Despite a fourth-place finish, Detroit (gray purple) made a great empire from beating Baltimore (medium blue) in the next-to-last game of the season. Baltimore only lost twice all season, earning first place in the West and managing to keep a sizable yet scattered empire. Cleveland (brown) was first in the East, and they beat Baltimore in the championship game, played in Cleveland. Cleveland didn't get much of an empire, though, due to an early home draw with second-place St. Louis (magenta) and a home loss to sixth-place Pittsburgh (yellow), coupled with failing to beat big landholders in away games. In the Western Conference, Green Bay (kelly green) and Minnesota (violet) tied for second, both with decent empires.

Here is the map before the season started:

Oh look. San Francisco lost their capital.

NFL Empires: 1963

This is a continuation of my "empire" maps (where victors take the territory of the losers) of the NFL. Different than most such imperialism sports maps, instead of gaining all the loser's land from a victory home or away, the victor only gets territory for an away victory, and just two-thirds of it (or one-third for an away tie).

There were no changes to the teams from the previous season.

My data was from Pro Football Reference and most of the logos from SportsLogos.net and Sports Ecyclopedia.

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1963 season:

Chicago (light blue) beat New York (dark blue) for the championship, but the game was in Chicago, so they gained no land. Green Bay (kelly green) saw their empire shrink drastically this year, despite coming in second in the West. They started the season with a loss to Chicago and never recovered. Minnesota (violet) controlled a large empire for the first time (despite a losing record), thanks to a late-season draw at Chicago and victory at Philadelphia (dark green). By Eastern Conference standards, Cleveland (brown) had a large empire, as they came in second place in the East.

Here is the map before the season started:

Oh yeah. Detroit nearly disappeared, too.

NFL Empires: 1962

This is a continuation of my "empire" maps (where victors take the territory of the losers) of the NFL. Different than most such imperialism sports maps, instead of gaining all the loser's land from a victory home or away, the victor only gets territory for an away victory, and just two-thirds of it (or one-third for an away tie).

There were no changes to the teams from the previous season.

My data was from Pro Football Reference and most of the logos from SportsLogos.net and Sports Ecyclopedia.

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1962 season:

Green Bay (kelly green) won the championship game over New York (dark blue), played in New York, so they expanded their massive empire. Green Bay was undefeated at home -- as was Detroit (gray purple), who came in second in the West, hence their large swath of land. Pittsburgh (yellow) earned second in the East, with a good empire by Eastern Conference standards.

Here is the map before the season started:

Remember Baltimore?

NFL Empires: 1961

This is a continuation of my "empire" maps (where victors take the territory of the losers) of the NFL. Different than most such imperialism sports maps, instead of gaining all the loser's land from a victory home or away, the victor only gets territory for an away victory, and just two-thirds of it (or one-third for an away tie).

Before the season, Minnesota joined the league. They gained the land within a 100-mile radius of their new capital. Dallas were moved from the Western Conference to the East, where they've been ever since.

My data was from Pro Football Reference and most of the logos from SportsLogos.net and Sports Ecyclopedia.

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1961 season:

Green Bay (kelly green) beat New York (dark blue) for the championship, but the game was in Green Bay, so no land was won. Baltimore (medium blue) gained control of a decent empire, despite a mediocre third place in the West. Detroit (gray purple) and Philadelphia (dark green) earned second place in each conference, but neither were consistent at home, so they couldn't accumulate much land. Overall, this season had a high degree of parity, with lower teams beating higher teams and pairs of teams beating each other in the other's home stadium.

Here is the map before the season started:

Lots of land swapping going on...

NFL Empires: 1960

This is a continuation of my "empire" maps (where victors take the territory of the losers) of the NFL. Different than most such imperialism sports maps, instead of gaining all the loser's land from a victory home or away, the victor only gets territory for an away victory, and just two-thirds of it (or one-third for an away tie).

Before the season, the Chicago Cardinals relocated to St. Louis. Also, Dallas joined the league. Both teams gained the land within a 100-mile radius of their new capitals.

My data was from Pro Football Reference and most of the logos from SportsLogos.net and Sports Ecyclopedia.

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1960 season:

Philadelphia (dark green) beat Green Bay (kelly green) in the championship game, but it was a home win, so they gained no land. Detroit (purple) and San Francisco (burgundy) tied for second in the West, while Cleveland (brown) was second place in the East, all with respectable empires. Dallas (sage green) managed to have some land at the end of the year (impressive for an expansion team) thanks to a draw at New York (dark blue) in their next-to-last game.

Here is the map before the season started:

Baltimore and St. Louis were the only teams that managed to hold onto the land around their capitals. That should give them solace after coming in fourth.

European Super League 2019-20

UPDATED August 23, '20: Final Standings are complete.

Some of the the richest clubs of European football have made noise about permanent spots in the UEFA Champions League, or wanting to create a closed European Super League. Naturally, I would prefer an open Super League, with promotion and relegation with the domestic leagues.

Since there are too many "big" clubs for one twenty-team league, I have created a twenty-team Super League and a second division with forty teams, split into East and West Leagues. To pick which teams are placed in which leagues, I used the UEFA Club Coefficients from the end of the 2014-15 season. Since then, each season, teams were relegated from the Super League to Division 2, replaced by the East and West champions. Beginning last season, the second-place team with the better record was also promoted to the Super League. (Ideally a playoff.) Three teams from each Division 2 league are relegated, replaced by the six teams that progress the furthest in the Champions League and Europa League. (Ideally, this would just be the final Champions League teams, with the relegated teams automatically qualified for the next season's Champions League so they have the potential for promotion as soon as possible.)

After the previous season, Schalke 04 was relegated from the Super League to Division 2 West. Napoli and Shakhtar Donetsk were relegated from the Super League to Division League East. Tottenham Hotspur, Genk and Salzburg were promoted from Division 2 to the Super League. PSV Eindhoven, Málaga, Leicester City, Ludogorets 1945, Basel 1893 and FCSB were relegated to their respective domestic leagues. Eintracht Frankfurt, Stade Rennais and Celtic were promoted to Division 2 West. Slavia Praha, Krasnodar and Dinamo Zagreb were promoted to Division 2 East.

To keep East and West at 20 teams each, Milan moved to the West.

Here is a map of the sixty teams in the international leagues. Click the rectangle tab thing in the upper left to get to the list where you can deselect the separate divisions.

Below are the final standings.

The standings include only games against teams in a team's division (Super League or Division 2). The first tiebreaker is the number of games played. The second tiebreaker is the UEFA club coefficient rankings.

The six teams that will be promoted from the domestic leagues are the six teams (that aren't above) who progress the furthest in the Champions League and Europa League. This will be Atalanta and the best five in the Europa League, which are Basel 1893, Copenhagen, Wolverhampton Wanderers, Wolfsburg and İstanbul Başakşehir.

NFL Empires: 1959

This is a continuation of my "empire" maps (where victors take the territory of the losers) of the NFL. Different than most such imperialism sports maps, instead of gaining all the loser's land from a victory home or away, the victor only gets territory for an away victory, and just two-thirds of it (or one-third for an away tie).

There were no changes to teams from the 1958 season.

My data was from Pro Football Reference and most of the logos from SportsLogos.net and Sports Ecyclopedia.

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1959 season:

Baltimore (medium blue) beat New York (dark blue) in the championship game, but it was played in Baltimore, so no land was won. Baltimore lost land this year, despite the championship, by losing at home to the Chicago Bears (light blue) and then Cleveland (brown) (both were second place in their divisions). Baltimore then beat the Bears in Chicago, but it was already after the Bears had lost at home to last-place Los Angeles (red). Pittsburgh (yellow) managed a large empire despite a mediocre record, thanks to key road victories in the second half of the season over Cleveland and New York.

Here is the map before the season started:

It's getting harder and harder to hold an empire for multiple seasons.

NFL Empires: 1958

This is a continuation of my "empire" maps (where victors take the territory of the losers) of the NFL. Different than most such imperialism sports maps, instead of gaining all the loser's land from a victory home or away, the victor only gets territory for an away victory, and just two-thirds of it (or one-third for an away tie).

There were no changes to teams from the 1957 season.

My data was from Pro Football Reference and most of the logos from SportsLogos.net and Sports Ecyclopedia.

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1958 season:

In "The Greatest Game Ever Played", Baltimore (medium blue) beat New York (dark blue) at Yankee stadium for the championship. It was the first sudden death overtime NFL playoff game. The Chicago Bears (light blue) had a good imperial resurgence this year, coming in second in the West. Los Angeles (red) came in third in the West. All told, the Western Conference controlled about 90% of the land by the end of the season. Eastern second place Cleveland (brown) had barely more than Western fifth place Detroit (purple).

Here is the map before the season started:

'Twas the year of blue.

NFL Empires: 1957

This is a continuation of my "empire" maps (where victors take the territory of the losers) of the NFL. Different than most such imperialism sports maps, instead of gaining all the loser's land from a victory home or away, the victor only gets territory for an away victory, and just two-thirds of it (or one-third for an away tie).

There were no changes to teams from the 1956 season.

My data was from Pro Football Reference and most of the logos from SportsLogos.net and Sports Ecyclopedia.

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1957 season:

Detroit (purple) won the championship game over Cleveland (brown), but it was played in Detroit so no land was gained. In the Western Conference, Detroit and San Francisco (burgundy) tied for first, so they had a playoff game. It was played in San Francisco, so Detroit actually gained most of their land in that one game. Also prominent on the map is Baltimore (medium blue), who came in third in the West. Washington (gold) gained a good empire even though they had a losing record, fourth in the East, because they beat the Chicago Bears (light blue) in Chicago to get a piece of that crumbling empire. Second in the East was New York (dark blue), who lost most of their empire with a couple late home losses.

Here is the map before the season started:

Bad year for the Bears and that other Chicago team.

NFL Empires: 1956

This is a continuation of my "empire" maps (where victors take the territory of the losers) of the NFL. Different than most such imperialism sports maps, instead of gaining all the loser's land from a victory home or away, the victor only gets territory for an away victory, and just two-thirds of it (or one-third for an away tie).

Before the seasons, New York moved from Manhattan to the Bronx. As with previous team relocations, they lost the most distant third of their empire (given to the neighbor with the closest capital), but gained the land within 100 miles of their new home.

My data was from Pro Football Reference and most of the logos from SportsLogos.net and Sports Ecyclopedia.

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1956 season:

New York (dark blue) won the championship game at home over the Chicago Bears (light blue), so no land exchanged hands. A couple weeks before, New York had lost at home to Cleveland (brown), who finished fourth place in the East. A couple weeks before that, New York had tied at home to the Bears. By the end of the season, New York didn't have much land left. The difference in the championship game was that New York opted to wear sneakers instead of cleats on the icy field, an echo of the 1934 championship game, which oddly enough featured the same two teams, the same city, the same field conditions, the same footwear, and the same result.

Here is the map before the season started:

All Chicago this year.