NFL Empires: 1925

This is a continuation of my "empire" maps (where victors take the territory of the losers) of the NFL. Different than most such imperial 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).

This is the sixth season of the NFL, starting where the previous season ended and removing teams which folded or took a hiatus (distributing their land to neighbors based on distance to "capitals") and adding the New York Giants and other new teams with new territory (taking a 100-mile radius, except only halfway to a "capital" city of the land the new team is taking).

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

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1925 season:

After a dismal first season, Kansas City (dark teal) conquered wide swaths of land this year. But they actually finished 13th out of 20 teams. The official champions were the Chicago Cardinals (magenta), whose only away game was a tie against the cross-town Bears. Hence, not much territory here.

Here is the map before the season started:

Ah, Duluth. At least you have more land than Milwaukee.

NFL Empires: 1924

This continues my "empire" maps (where victors take the territory of the losers) of the NFL. Different than most such imperial 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).

This is the fifth season of the NFL, starting where the previous season ended and removing Canton and others which folded or took a hiatus (distributing their land to neighbors based on distance to "capitals") and adding new teams with new territory (taking a 100-mile radius, except only halfway to a "capital" city of the land the new team is taking).

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

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1924 season:

Duluth (violet) look like champions here, but they actually came in fourth. Cleveland (dark sage green) won in real life but barely made a dent on this map. They only played away twice: a draw at Frankford (tan) and a win at Akron (pale green). Meanwhile, Columbus (orange) also gained a lot of land, despite a 4-4 record.

Here is the map before the season started:

Alas, poor Minneapolis.

NFL Empires: 1923

Continuing my "empire" maps (where victors take the territory of the losers) of the NFL. Different than most such imperial 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).

This is the fourth season of the NFL, starting where the previous season ended and removing Evansville which folded (distributing their land to neighbors based on distance to "capitals") and adding new teams with new territory (taking a 100-mile radius, except only halfway to a "capital" city of the land the new team is taking).

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

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1923 season:

Canton (red) conquered more territory and won the official championship for the second year in a row. The Chicago Bears (light blue) came in second again, but they played their last ten games of their thirteen-game season at home, so they lost territory this year. Even the 1-10 Oorang Indians (bright green) gained territory ... by never playing a home game. Meanwhile the 8-4 Chicago Cardinals (magenta) fell off the map entirely by playing only one road game all season (against the Bears).

Here is the map before the season started:

NFL Empires: 1922

Continuing my "empire" maps (where victors take the territory of the losers) of the NFL. Different than most, 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).

This is the third season of the NFL (the first when they actually called it the NFL), starting where the previous season ended and removing folded teams (distributing their land to their neighbors based on distance to their "capitals") and adding new teams with new territory (taking a 100-mile radius, except only halfway to a "capital" city of the land the new team is taking).

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

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1922 season:

Canton (red) did well this season and actually won the official championship. The Bears (light blue) came in second, but you can barely tell. They didn't play on the road much at all. The bright green on the west coast (and in the Midwest) was the Oorang Indians, a travelling team composed of Native Americans. They won their one and only home game, so they show much better than a 3-6 record would indicate.

Here is the map at the beginning of 1922:

NFL Empires: 1921

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. This then is the second season of the NFL, starting where the first season ended and adding new teams with new territory (taking a 100-mile radius, except only halfway to a "capital" city).

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

Here then is the map of the NFL empires after the 1921 season (when it was called the APFA):

Canton (red) really looks like they did well this season, but the Chicago Staleys (light blue) were crowned champions and Canton were also behind Buffalo (purple) and Akron (pale green). The teams did not play an even number of home and away games, so a team like Canton, who played three home games and seven away games (finishing with six away games), can take territory and never put it at risk by losing. Meanwhile, the Staleys played all eleven games at home (none away!), so they can only lose territory and gain none. It might be good for their trophy case, but it's bad in this empire world.

Here is the map at the beginning of 1921:

Seven of these teams played four or fewer games.

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.

US Soccer Combined Leagues 2019

UPDATED December 15, 2019: Final Standings updated based on the teams for next year.

Just suppose that many years ago, the US Soccer Federation required all professional teams to play in the same league system. Just suppose that they decided that it would be best to always have two equal leagues, east and west, and then divide teams vertically into Division 1, Division 2, etc. Just suppose that, each year, they promoted the best teams from Division 2 and relegated the worst teams from Division 1.

And here's the big leap. Just suppose that we didn't have any more teams playing than what we actually have.

In 2019, the USSF has 70 professional men's teams. Only one team (Penn) withdrew after the 2018 season. New teams added to Division 2 West are Austin Bold, El Paso Locomotive, Memphis 901, New Mexico United, North Texas and Tucson. New teams in Division 2 East are Birmingham Legion, Chattanooga Red Wolves, Forward Madison, Greenville Triumph, Hartford Athletic, Lansing Ignite, Loudoun United, Orlando City B and South Georgia Tormenta. Whew! That's quite a lot.

To balance the leagues, Saint Louis and Swope Park Rangers were moved to the West, while Chicago landed in the East.

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

Here are the final standings for 2019.

Since a wonderful home-and-away round robin didn't actually happen in each league above, I substituted that with ranking the teams by points-per-game, including each team's league and cup games played in 2019, only counting games against teams in its division (Division 1 or 2).

Due to the large number of teams entering play in 2020, a Division 3 will be added. Rather than have three tiers of two leagues, I've decided to have a single 18-team table for Division 1 next year. This will provide competitive balance between East and West, over the years. Thus eight teams will be relegated from each 2019 Division 1 league and ten from each 2019 Division 2 league.

B teams must be in a division below their A teams, so if an A team is relegated from Division 1 to Division 2, then the B team will be relegated to Division 3, no matter its place in the table.

European Super League 2018-19

UPDATED May 29, 2019: Final Standings are below.

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, two teams were relegated from the Super League to Division 2, replaced by the East and West champions. Two teams from each Division 2 league were relegated, replaced by the four teams that progressed the furthest in the Champions League and Europa League. (Ideally, this would just be the final four 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).

Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Benfica were relegated from the Super League to Division 2 West. Ajax and Internazionale Milano were promoted to the Super League. Borussia Mönchengladbach, AZ Alkmaar, Sparta Praha, and PAOK were relegated to their respective domestic leagues. Lokomotiv Moskva, RB Leipzig, Salzburg and Ludogorets 1945 were promoted to Divison 2 East.

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

In a change this year, three teams will be relegated from each league. The third Division 2 team promoted will be the second place team with the higher points per game. Ideally, though, this would be a playoff.

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.

Here are the final standings for the 2018-19 season:

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 progressed the furthest in the Champions League and Europa League. Since no "new" team advanced to the knock-out round of the Champions League, all six are from the Europa League: Eintracht Frankfurt, Slavia Praha, Krasnodar, Dinamo Zagreb, Stade Rennais, and Celtic (who had the highest coefficient of the teams eliminated in the round of 32, above BATE Borisov, Rapid Wien, Real Betis Balompié, Malmö, and Zürich).

US Soccer Combined Leagues 2018

UPDATE 12/8/18: Final standings of the 2018 season.

Just suppose that many years ago, the US Soccer Federation required all professional teams to play in the same league system. Just suppose that they decided that it would be best to always have two equal leagues, east and west, and then divide teams vertically into Division 1, Division 2, etc. Just suppose that, each year, they promoted the best teams from Division 2 and relegated the worst teams from Division 1.

And here's the big leap. Just suppose that we didn't have any more teams playing than what we actually have.

In 2018, the USSF has 56 professional teams. Nine teams folded/withdrew after the 2017 season (Edmonton, Jacksonville Armada, Miami, New York Cosmos, Orlando City B, Puerto Rico, Rochester Rhinos, San Francisco Deltas, and Vancouver Whitecaps 2). New teams added to Division 2 West are Fresno, Las Vegas Lights, and Los Angeles. In the East, the new teams in Division 2 are Atlanta United 2 and Nashville.

To balance the leagues, Saint Louis and Swope Park Rangers were moved from the West to the East.

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

Here are the current standings:

Since a wonderful home-and-away round robin didn't actually happen in each league above, I have substituted that with ranking the teams by points-per-game, including each team's league and cup games played in 2018, only counting games against teams in its division (Division 1 or 2).

At least one team from each Division 1 league will be relegated and at least one team from each Division 2 league will be promoted. The final number is determined by the number of professional teams in 2019 and the resultant promotions without relegations to even out the divisions. Without adjustments to the number of teams, three would be relegated and three would be promoted. With a current net gain of 13 teams, four are promoted for each team relegated.

B teams in Division 2 are ineligible for promotion as B teams can't be in Division 1.

European Super League 2017-18

UPDATE 5/26/18: Final standings for the season.

Some of 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. After the 2015-16 and 2016-17 seasons, two teams were relegated from the Super League to Division 2, replaced by the east and west champions. Two teams from each Division 2 league were relegated, replaced by the four teams that progressed the furthest in the Champions League and Europa League. (Ideally, this would just be the final four 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).

PSV Eindhoven was relegated from the Super League to Division 2 West. Zenit Saint Petersburg was relegated from the Super League to Division 2 East. Liverpool and Shakhtar Donetsk were promoted to the Super League. Wolfsburg, Celtic, Salzburg and Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk were relegated to their respective domestic leagues. Leicester City, Celta de Vigo and Borussia Mönchengladbach were promoted to Division 2 West. Monaco was promoted to Division 2 East.

To keep the Division 2 leagues with even teams, Basel 1893 was moved from the West to the East, since Basel is east of Mönchengladbach.

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.

Here are the final standings.

The standings include games only against teams in a team's division (Super League or Division 2). Borussia Monchengladbach did not play any such games this season. The first tiebreaker is the number of games played. The second tiebreaker is the UEFA club coefficient rankings.

The four teams promoted from the domestic leagues are the four teams (that aren't above) who progressed the furthest in the Champions League and Europa League. Since no "new" team advanced to the knock-out round of the Champions League, all four are from the Europa League: Lokomotiv Moskva, RB Leipzig, Salzburg, and Ludogorets 1945, who have the highest coefficient of the teams eliminated in the round of 32.

US Soccer Combined Leagues 2017

UPDATE 1/7/18: Final standings updated based on revised teams for 2018.

Just suppose that many years ago, the US Soccer Federation required all professional teams to play in the same league system. Just suppose that they decided that it would be best to always have two equal leagues, east and west, and then divide teams vertically into Division 1, Division 2, etc. Just suppose that, each year, they promoted the best teams from Division 2 and relegated the worst teams from Division 1.

And here's the big leap. Just suppose that we didn't have any more teams playing than what we actually have.

In 2017, the USSF has 60 professional teams. Four teams folded/withdrew after the 2016 season (Fort Lauderdale Strikers, FC Montreal, Rayo OKC, and Wilmington Hammerheads). New teams added to Division 2 West are Reno 1868 and San Francisco Deltas. In the East, the new teams in Division 2 are Atlanta United and Puerto Rico.

To balance the leagues, Columbus Crew was moved from the West to the East.

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

Here are the final standings for 2017:

Oof. That's a lot of gray.

Since a wonderful home-and-away round robin won't actually happen in each league above, I will substitute that with ranking the teams by points-per-game, including each team's league and cup games played in 2017, only counting games against teams in its division (Division 1 or 2).

At least one team from each Division 1 league will be relegated and at least one team from each Division 2 league will be promoted. The final number is determined by the number of professional teams in 2018 and the resultant promotions without relegations to even out the divisions. Without adjustments to the number of teams, three would be relegated and three would be promoted.

B teams in Division 2 are ineligible for promotion as B teams can't be in Division 1.

Killer, the Album

So of course, I had to finish the trilogy.

After Moisture Farm of Owen and The Empire, I had to write the lyrics for Star Wars: Episode VI, Return of the Jedi, set to the most popular album of 1983, Michael Jackson's Thriller.

Some of the lyrics of "Thriller" fit perfectly with the battle over the sarlacc's pit, without change. And Palpatine easily replaced Billie Jean (once I figured how to spell "emperor" as two syllables). After that, it was just listening for the background vocals and differentiating oohs from hoos.

Here are the songs:

Jabba Be Startin' Somethin'
Welcome Back Han
The One Jedi
Killer (Sarlacc Fight)
Beat Him
Palpatine
Ewok Nature
J.Y.T. (Jedi Young Thing)
The Falcon in My Life

The Falcon in My Life

[A Star Wars parody of "The Lady in My Life" by Michael Jackson]

Han lent me the fastest ship
I promised not a scratch
(Not even a scratch)
I'm back behind the controls
And leading the main attack
(Rebel attack)
Now, we get to Endor but no shield reading
It must be up still, it's a trap

TIE fighters coming in
So we accelerate, attack
And my ship is part of me
I can slice 'em like a knife
And we are all at risk
From the Death Star, laser blast
So I promise you, my ship
That you will always be the Falcon in my life

We won't get another chance
My old buddy Han won't let us down
Girl, I need your guns full strength, oh
All fighters follow me
Han did it and soon we will be free
Now in we go

And through tunnels we race
Scrape the roof but still we fly
And those TIE fighters still chase
Power generator, we spy
We fire our missiles
And the structure starts to give way
I will fly you fast and pray
'Cause you will always be the Falcon in my life

Through the flames
I'm flying through the flames
I need you to survive

(Ooh girl, it's a little warm)
Let's get out of here
(You are the Falcon in my life)
You're my Falcon
(Escape from the fireball)
I wanna yee-ha!
(Always the Falcon in my life)
I wanna celebrate
(Empire is at an end)
(You are the Falcon in my life)
Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo
(Must give you back to my friend)
(Always the Falcon in my life)
You're my Falcon and I love you, girl

(Ooh girl, feel your engines burn)
Ooh
(You are the Falcon in my life)
Let's get out of here
(Keep you all for myself)
(Always the Falcon in my life)
I love you, I love you, I need you, I want you, baby
(Can't give you back to buddy Han)
Stay with me
(You are the Falcon in my life)
Let's get out of here
(I don't need to make a plan)
And I love you, baby
(Always the Falcon in my life)
Ooh

Ooh babe
Let's get out of here
You're my Falcon
You're out of sight

(I should take you back to Han)
I wanna keep you, though
(You are the Falcon in Han's life)
In my life, now
(To Endor where I should land)
Let me fly you, babe
(Always the Falcon in Han's life)
All over, all over, all over
(Go back to my buddy Han)
Go back with me
(You are the Falcon in his life)
Let me take you there
(Forest clearing, now I'm gonna land)
I want to go
(Always the Falcon in his life)
All over, all over, all over, all over, all over, all over, all over baby

(Ooh girl, now you're back with Han)
(You are the Falcon in his life)
Ooh
(Now I go party with them)
(Always the Falcon in my life)
You're my Falcon
(You deserve better than him)
You're my Falcon, baby
(You are the Falcon in my life)
Ooh