NCAA College Football 25 Dynasty Mode: A Deep Dive into a Potentially Groundbreaking Experience

The return of the college football video game franchise has sparked immense excitement, and the details emerging about NCAA College Football 25's Dynasty Mode suggest it could revolutionize the franchise mode experience. The immersion and depth being promised are truly captivating. After processing the Dynasty Mode Trailer, re-reading the Deep Dive, and watching countless breakdown videos, I've come to the conclusion that CFB25 Dynasty Mode has the potential to be the best Dynasty/Career/Franchise mode ever!

Coaching Staffs: A Strategic Layer

One of the most exciting aspects is the revamped coaching staff system. The different coaching trees you can choose for yourself, and how they stack/buff with your coordinators is great! The ability to choose different coaching trees, each with its own unique strengths and weaknesses, adds a layer of strategic depth. The fact that coordinators upgrade themselves prevents the creation of an unstoppable "super staff," forcing players to make tough decisions about resource allocation. The many different coaching trees is a huge win! The coaching carousel, a beloved feature of NCAA 14, makes a triumphant return, but in an even more enhanced form.

The game introduces the possibility of coaches leaving for the NFL, mirroring real-world scenarios. It was awesome to see the coaching carousel back. (The Coaching carousel was a huge factor in NCAA 14. But they outdid themselves with this one.) I noticed that some coaches would leave for the NFL. While the ability to import draft classes remains hindered by legal issues, the hope is that, once resolved, coaches can be imported into Madden as well, addressing the latter's lackluster coaching pool.

An intriguing suggestion is the addition of an Athletic Director Mode. It was be awesome if there was an Athletic Director Mode. Instead of being a coach, you were the AD in charge of hiring and firing ALL of the coaches. This would allow players to oversee the entire athletic program, hiring and firing coaches, and even witnessing hired head coaches bringing in their own offensive and defensive coordinators. Say you weren't happy the the HC, you could fire them and bring in another HC. Maybe even the hired HC would bring in their own OC and DC.

Recruiting: Depth and Realism

Recruiting has been revamped but I love seeing that there are some returning features from pre NCAA 14 installments. The recruiting system has undergone a significant overhaul, incorporating elements from previous installments while introducing new features. The ability to manage a recruiting board of 3500 recruits per season, scout players, and navigate verbal commitments and decommitments promises a more realistic and engaging experience. Can't wait to dive into this with the 3500 recruits per season. (Again, madden, take notes on the variety of recruits that are in the game. We need this exact system for the rookies incoming rookies). Verbal and Decommitments was a nice surprise. This happens all the time in the real world. I can't wait to be upset that someone decommits from my school.

The new and improved pipelines seems like a huge win, but I was slightly (just slightly) discouraged to see that you could not improve your pipeline ratings as you could in older games. The improved pipeline system appears to be a major advantage, although the inability to improve pipeline ratings, a feature of older games, is a minor disappointment. However, larger schools will have more resources for recruiting so they get more hours to use. It seemed like you could improve this as your school gets better so that would be an awesome grind. It appears that as a school's prestige grows, its recruiting resources will increase, creating a rewarding progression system.

EA focussed on three pillars when it came to building the high school recruitment model in Dynasty Mode. It’s worth you knowing these from the outset, as they all play into whether a hot prospect is willing to join your program:

Recruits have unique needs and motivations that you have to discover by interacting with them individually.
Regions of the country are differentiated by player caliber, quality, and type to authentically capture high school talent based on historical real-world data.
The different resources available mean the top schools blanket the country, while smaller schools need to be more targeted.

At that start of each season you begin to populate your recruiting board. There are more than 3,500 players to choose from, so it’s worth investing some time on this initial groundwork. Go old school and have a pen and paper handy too!

The first thing to look for is five-star prospects who also have a pipeline rating of 5. These should be your number one priority, particularly in positions of need. Some may even sign as soon as you offer a scholarship. From here, look for four-star prospects with a 5 pipeline rating, or five-star prospects with a 4 pipeline rating. Follow this down to three-star prospects with a 5 pipeline rating, and so on.

As you play you’ll develop nuances to your searches, such as height, weight and other subtle differentiators, but this advice is an excellent starting point.

Read also: Crafting Your NCAA Profile

The maximum number of players on your board is 35. As the weeks advance, note down each prospect’s three key motivations, some of which are Deal Breakers. You want to make sure your recruit aligns with your strongest points on the grades list below. Any with desires for which you only have B or C grades may need to be immediately removed from your board. But that’s up to you!

Once the season is underway, you need to commit hours to winning over your recruits. While you’re doing this, prospects gradually narrow down their top schools from Open, to Top 8, Top 5, Top 3, and finally Commitment. Your priority is to stay above their cut-off line each week.

Recruiting hours are based on your team’s prestige. A five-star college starts out with 1,000 hours, while a one-star school gets just 350. Also, you can only spend 50 hours on a single prospect, unless you have the Always Be Crootin’ ability.

School Grades

Your school grades are vital in attracting prospects. There are 14 in total. Most can be improved - or get worse - as you progress, meaning results really do matter. When you talk to players or bring them in for visits, try to match your strengths with theirs, using the color coded symbols. Green is good, red is a no-go!

Playing Time: How long it will take for a player to become a starter in your college.
Playing Style: A representation of how you play. For example, Field General quarterbacks' 'playing style' grade is dictated by passing yards per game.
Championship Contender: How close your team is to winning a championship, based on current rankings.
Program Tradition: Historic success based on Championships, wins, and awards.
Campus Lifestyle: A rating of the area surrounding the campus, and campus itself. This grade cannot be changed.
Stadium Atmosphere: This is set according to the stadium’s Toughest Places to Play ranking, which is based on home wins.
Pro Potential: How likely it is that players on the current roster will make it to the NFL.
Brand Exposure: A team’s overall brand recognition.
Academic Prestige: How good your school is academically. This grade cannot be changed.
Conference Prestige: The overall strength of the conference your college plays in.
Coach Prestige: How good the school’s coaching staff is, especially the Head Coach.
Coach Stability: How long the coaching staff has been in place and is likely to keep their jobs over four years.
Athletic Facilities: The quality of athletic facilities for the program.
Proximity to Home: Where your school is in relation to the recruit’s home pipeline.

As the season unfolds, the final element of securing your target is the Schedule Visit option. This costs 40 hours from your overall team allocation, but doesn’t count against the 50 individual hours. It’s only available once a prospect has finalised his top five, and been offered a scholarship by your school.

You can host up to four prospects per visit, and they’re only available for home games or bye weeks. There are 14 activities to choose from. Again, try to marry up a prospects’ three interests with your strengths! Also think carefully about positions. Bringing two QBs in on the same day is likely to put one or both off, due to them being in direct competition. However, a QB and LT pairing might develop chemistry. Also, be sure to win the match in question!

Once your prospects have verbally committed, it’s all about maintaining your promises until signing day. For instance, if they have Championship Contender as a Deal Breaker and you lose five games on the spin, there’s a risk of losing them. Hopefully that doesn’t happen and, once signing day is done, you can relax and start busting out some College Football 25 celebrations.

Teambuilder and Stadiums

I think this is about the same as it was in previous installments which is not a bad thing. The Teambuilder feature, which allows for extensive customization, appears to be similar to previous versions, which is not necessarily a negative. A key question remains: Can you upgrade the stadiums if you take a mediocre small school to a true dynasty? Will it be possible to upgrade stadiums as a program rises in prominence?

Dynasty Mode Enjoyment

Most of us do not care about microtransactions and multiplayer. We will show up to play Dynasty Mode. The thrill little kids get when they build a castle out of blocks lies dormant in us, and the genius of the old NCAA Football games was that they let us craft fantasy worlds. Building a little corner of the universe in Fortnite is fine. But moving Hawaii to the Pac-12 and winning national championships with a five-star QB named Talladega von Oelhoffen is way more fun.

Your enjoyment of the game may hinge on picking the right team to guide to Valhalla. With 134 options, it’s a big decision in consequence and scope. As a public service, I’ve broken those teams into eight menu categories. Call it the Split Zone Duo Field Guide to Dynasty Mode Enjoyment (SZDFG2DME).

Option 1: Your Favorite Team

Maryland, in my case.

Option 2: Power Conference Longshots

Make yourself a virtual Bear Bryant-but the Kentucky kind, not the Bama kind. Some purists will only start a Dynasty with a non-power program, but there’s a particular fun in taking over a non-blue-blood in a big league. The recruiting is more manageable in that you’ll be able to land a few blue-chippers. You get more games against blue-bloods. And at the end of the day, guiding Oklahoma State to a national title is barely a lesser feat than doing it at Tulsa. One of my favorite Dynasties in the game’s last version was my juggernaut at Kentucky.

Includes: Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, Boston College, BYU, California, Cincinnati, Colorado, Duke, Georgia Tech, Houston, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Missouri, NC State, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, Pitt, Purdue, Rutgers, SMU, South Carolina, Syracuse, TCU, Tennessee, Texas Tech, UCLA, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin.

Option 3: The Group of 5 Hipster Menu

Here are teams that might have a cool stadium, a long-ago history of success, or a good enough roster that you’re not starting from nothing (usually). Enjoy playing on Boise State’s blue turf, EMU’s dystopian gray turf from Stranger Things, Appalachian State’s mountain field surrounded by stunning forest, or UTSA’s now-retro surface at the Alamodome. Are you dismayed by Middle Tennessee’s or North Texas’ years of stagnancy in a vibrant region with lots of solid recruits? Would you like ECU to once again become a graveyard for ACC visitors? Be the change you want to see in the world.

Includes: Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Boise State, Colorado State, East Carolina, Eastern Michigan, Fresno State, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Jacksonville State, James Madison, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Old Dominion, San Jose State, South Alabama, South Florida, Southern Miss, Toledo, UTSA, Utah State, Western Kentucky, Wyoming

Option 4: Football Masochism

You want all the challenges associated with building a proper progrum. You don’t mind playing weeknight games in frigid virtual conditions and receiving no national notoriety. You want to pull off ridiculous stunts to get the student body at Charlotte behind the 49ers. You have no problem being small enough that you need to allow one of six Louisiana Tech reporters into every practice. You crave a chance to prove high-level football is possible in New Mexico. You possess in your bones a belief that Akron could one day win 10 games. You see it as an appealing design feature that Sam Houston has a track around its field.

Includes: Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Charlotte, FAU, FIU, Kent State, Louisiana, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Miami (Ohio), Nevada, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Sam Houston, Temple, Texas State, Troy, Tulsa, UConn, UMass, UTEP, Western Michigan

Option 5: Playbook Schools

Army, Navy, and Air Force will run various versions of the flexbone option in the game. Kennesaw and Coastal will be quite optionish too, I am led to believe. Enjoy running a bunch of RPOs at UCF, sampling coordinator Brennan Marion’s “Go-Go Offense” at UNLV, and deploying the agonizingly slow mesh point between the QB and running back at Wake Forest. If you like the satisfaction of running the same plays over and over or doing something out of the ordinary, have at it. You can also cheat God by taking one of those playbooks to another school.

Includes: Air Force, Army, Coastal Carolina, Kennesaw State, Navy, UCF, UNLV, Wake Forest

Option 6: Transplant Candidates

The Hebrew saying tikkun olam means “repair the world.” You could do your own tikkun olam by creating a Big 12 lifeboat for Oregon State and Wazzu. You could undo our entire Dead Letters debut episode and put Tulane back in the SEC, where it was a power in the middle of the 20th century. You could exact payback against the Alabama board of trustees by depositing UAB in the SEC. You could bump Memphis up to the Big 12 now instead of waiting for real life.

Includes: Hawaii, Memphis, Oregon State, San Diego State, Tulane, UAB, Washington State

Option 7: Defy Gravity

Want to pretend we live in a world where Miami can still build the best roster in the country? The game will permit that. Want to ignore the systematic breakdown of all of Nebraska’s advantages under Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne? It’s right there for you. Want to make sure a smart-kid school is invested in football at the highest level? Want to deny the shifts in recruiting that have hobbled Virginia Tech? Want to convince yourselves that Mississippi powerbrokers won’t find a way to fuck up Ole Miss? The world is your oyster.

Includes: Miami, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ole Miss, Rice, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Virginia Tech

Option 8: Cop Mode

What you do with your $70 is between you and your creator.

Includes: Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, FSU, Georgia, Liberty, LSU, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Penn State, Texas, Texas A&M, USC, Washington

Coaching Skill Trees: A Personalized Approach

In NCAA 14, players would level up a coaching skill progression tree over the course of their career. By winning games, hitting certain statistical achievements, signing recruits, etc, they would “level up” and could spend points to improve their skills in recruiting, scouting, and in-game performance. In practice, virtually everybody leveled up their coach exactly the same way. You maxed out your recruiting level as quickly as possible, and then you started to put a little energy into the rest of your skillset. After a few successful seasons, you could max out every possible skill.

That’s no longer the case. Coaches will have a substantially more complicated skill tree in CFB25, with 11 possible branches, branches that provide boosts to recruiting, tactics, motivation and more. Developers told us that even over a 30 year coaching career, you won’t be able to max out every single branch. No coach, even Nick Saban, is perfect at everything, so you’ll need to make strategic decisions about what kind of coach you want to be.

That starts with your coaching staff. For the first time in the series, players can now specifically hire offensive and defensive coordinators…individuals who will have their own coaching skill trees. If your head coach is a more recruiting-focused guy, do you hire recruiting-centric assistants to double up on those bonuses (and potentially unlock new boosts)? Or do you hire coordinators whose skillsets compliment that of your head coach? Do you fire a coordinator who might be a poor fit, but is close to some of your biggest recruits?

Those coordinators could also potentially leave to become head coaches in the offseason. Or maybe a current head coach is somebody you could hire to be a coordinator.

New Features

College Football 25 will feature the brand-new 12-team college football playoffs. The previous four-team format is out the window starting in 2025, with EA Sports providing the first experience for college football fans. Choose between a recurring favorite like Texas or Michigan, looking to have sustained success for the next decade. The newest installment allows you to take full control over your recruiting, starting with setting up a board and scouts that will maximize certain recruiting pipelines. The transfer portal is also featured in College Football 25, for both college athletes and coaches alike. Players can set their schedules and adjust conferences. The game is officially available for pre-order at this time. There are several options for pre-order: Standard, Deluxe and an MVP Bundle.

tags: #ncaa #25 #dynasty #mode #features