For a game to have this much information in a deep dive is pretty impressive. The Dynasty Deep Dive forCollege Football 25clocks in at 17,000 words and 85 pages. While yes, there are pictures, but the amount of detailed information summarizes what it means to go above and beyond for the new modern era of college football. Do you want to see how coach creation works? It’s here. Want to start off as a coordinator? you’re able to. Trying to sway players out of the transfer portal? Good luck. The Dynasty Deep Dive trailer can be viewedherefor those visual learners.
Some Quick Hitters
Before diving into the individual details surrounding Dynasty Mode, EA revealed some quick notes as a baseline for both online and offline Dynasties.
The Design of a Modern Dynasty Mode
With designing this mode, the development team spoke to members of the college football community along with experts and coaches. They scoured through blog posts, tweets and wishlist videos. The developers wanted to find the deep experience that revolves around current landscape of college football, and this just literally changed. The three anchors involved Building Your Program, Building Your Coach and Deliver the World of College Football. The Deep Dive breaks each of these anchors down like this:
Current coaches represent three main categories. There isn’t a single coach that is great at every single aspect of football. Don’t forget that at one time, Steve Spurrier couldn’t name any of his defensive players at Florida. College coaches are either excellent recruiters, motivators that maximize player potential, and tacticians who aim to out-scheme opponents. Alabama’s offense had fallen behind in 2013 and the program had to pivot and change their entire philosophy. All of this under Saban, yet they had to bring in an offensive guru to reignite the offense.
Dynasty Mode, Road to Glory Go Deeper in College Football 25
This also allows for the return of Teambuilder, which will allow up to 32 teams to be used both online and offline for Dynasty.
Coaching progression starts with simply playing games in College Football 25. Completing goals will award XP, thus leveling up the coach that caps at Level 50. Coach Points are rewarded and will be used to upgrade abilities. XP goals are broken down into single games, weekly, season and career goals. This can include the number of players who are drafted to the NFL in the 1st Round, single play results such as interceptions and touchdowns, or beating rivals, a top 25 team and winning a national championship for the season goals. This can be tracked in the Coach tab in the Dynasty Hub. There are also five progression speed settings, so if players want to see quicker results or space out the full 30 seasons, they can. Notifications will pop up in the top left corner of the screen during the game. XP summaries are shown after every week.
Archetypes
The archetype-based coach abilities system will help mold your coach into what you desire. Much like traditional RPG classes, all players in the party must do their job and work together. Coaches will have a base class or coach archetype. These are broken down into Recruiting, Motivation (development and culture) and Scheme (X and O). Progression can be sought in multiple ways. Coaches can be an expert in a single category such as being an elite recruiter, or the option to be a hybrid coach that is strong in multiple areas. The ultimate goal is to be a CEO on top of the college football world.
On-field success and ability progression will allow coaches to achieve an elite archetype. There is no single formula to reach these statuses. There are eleven different archetypes that offer their own focus and perks. They form a rock, paper, scissors relationship with no dominant archetype. Every decision on the coaching journey will matter. Coaches abilities CANNOT be re-spec. The archetypes have a set of prereqs and objectives to complete that will unlock them. Unlocking Elite Recruiter requires spending 50 Coach points in the Recruiter archetype and then signing two top five recruiting classes.
Created coaches will select one of the three archetypes, but the option to purchase the other two with Coach Points will be available without needing to meet any additional requirements. Purchasing these will unlock a new set of abilities that include new opportunities in the coach carousel. Each archetype has a perk when its active such as awarding additional coach XP everytime a game is won with Tactician. The active archetype is automatically determined. If players own the Program Buyilder of CEO archetypes, these will always be the active archetypes regardless of coach points that were used to purchase other archetypes. If not owning these, it will always default to the archetype where the most coach points have been spent.
Utilizing the Abilities
Abilities will be purchased within the archetype as there will be more than 50 coach abilities. Each can have up to four tiers as each has a purchase cost associated with it. Abilities are broken down by position group besides the Scheme Gruru, Program Builder and CEO archetypes. Coaches will specilize in recruiting specific position groups rather than just being great at recruiting. Think quarterback whisperer, trench warfare or no fly zone. There will also be gameplay effects that are position based boosts. Things such as Fast Tempo Offense can be upgraded.
Battery Pack (Tier 1): Offensive players fatigue slower in hurry up
Teams can be setup to not work against themselves and don’t cave to hostile crowds. This is the Discipline/Communication ability.
Coordinator Importance
The developers are making sure defensive counters are available to all of the offensive play style abilities. Abilities such as Ground and Pound defense can be used. Coordinators and head coaches have the same set of abilities and archetypes that will allow a natural progression from coordinator to head coach. This increases the importance of staff management. Abilities can be stacked together from across the coaching staff to increase the effects. Head coach abilities will have the greatest impact. Coordinators that have an ability that is on the opposite side of the ball will have a lesser effect than one with a coinciding position. Each coach will have a spider graph based on the abilities and archetypes they own.
Starting Out
Players have the option to start a Dynasty as head coach or a coordinator. Coordinators will have performance expectations and all roles will have full control of recruiting and will be able to play both sides of the ball. Contracts will have a set length and failure to meet expectations can mean job loss. Expectations include winning a set amount of games, winning conference championship, making the playoff and winning a Natty. These are based on the current school prestige and program standing. Job security will fluctuate throughout the season based on results and trends. Low job security means the hot seat then eventual firing. User coach firing can be turned off in Dynasty settings.
Different wins create different results. Beating higher ranked teams will have a larger impact than generic FCS teams. Coach prestige grades will range from A+ to F. This is reflective of the ability to meet contract expectations. Winning five games at a bad program will have a smaller impact than winning a Championship at a powerhouse school. The school will evaluate the performance at the end of the contract and will offer an extension. These will be automatically excepted if the results are good. However, coaches can leave for a new job via the coaching carousel at any point during the contract, regardless of status. The reason for the auto accept is based on protection from inadvertently changing jobs if players sim past a contract extension offer without interacting with it. Players can view the last 20 years of a program before signing a contract and history will update over time.
How the Coaching Carousel Works
The coaching carousel will officially start during Conference Championship week every season. Schools will determine they want to fire, extend, or let expire a contract. As a head coach, coordinators can be fired this week. The first week of bowl season will be when the first round of job offers go out. If an offer isn’t received immediately, there will be multiple weeks available. As schools hire and poach coaches, others will open up during this time. If you opt to leave, you will coach through the National Championship. However, coaches can hire coordinators during the duration of the period.
Every school has a persona and that will determine what they want out of their next coach. This is broken down below:
Just because a job isn’t open in the initial week doesn’t mean it won’t be available later. Every listing will have the top candidates the school desires. All the movements can be viewed in the Staff Moves screen. Coordinators also will not leave unless they are fired or hired by another school, so they won’t actively seek employment. During Bowl Week 1, head coaches can look at coordinators and their resume and make a job offer if interested. It’s not a guarantee they accept it, either. Only one coach can be have an offer made per week. There will also be at least one coach available to hire that doesn’t require competition with another school. If nothing is done with any position or if a new coaching job isn’t selected by the National Championship, these will automatically be assigned.
New Staged Recruiting
There were four core goals after all the research was done with the community and coaches in regards to recruiting:
This process enabled the new Staged Recruiting experience in College Football 25. This is built around three phases: Discovery, Pitch and Close. Where they are at in their process will dictate how interaction is done and the level of engagement they require. Discovery will allow which prospects to target, their skills, and what they care about the most. This is the investigation phase but with an emphasis in uncovering information quickly. The sooner this is discovered, the better. Recruits will announce their top five schools, and then it is time to Pitch. Here coaches will sell the program and what is offered. How well this aligns with the player’s motivations will determine success.
The Close will be when the recruit comes in for an official visit. The goal is to get a verbal commitment, but decisions are made on National Signing Day. The developers had mentioned that bringing recruits in for more prominent matchups will greatly increases the chances of signing them. Schools will have 14 grades to make them inviting to recruits:
One of the more notable grades is Brand Exposure. This is a reflection of the school’s brand and the potential NIL opportunities a player could earn. While this is ever changing in the real world, this is one of the set precedents College Football 25 will use. Also, player’s projected overall rating will be compared to the team’s roster that will project how many years it will take to become a starter. Grades will update dynamically throughout the season, but some will only update at the end of every season. Highlighting a grade in the Recruiting Hub will provide ways to improve each grade. you’re able to expect more than 3,500 recruits generated from across the country each season. Some years will have a ton of talent, others will have minimal. Certain regions will be more consistent than others. The team also analyzed historical recruiting data and discussed various recruiting strategies and tactics with coaches to help with how recruiting was done in different areas of the country.
The research for recruiting lead to change the recruiting pipelines. In the past, this was done by state. This will now be done by geographic region. This isn’t just southeast, southwest, etc, but rather Metro Atlanta or combining New York and New Jersey into one pipeline. There will be a total of 50 pipelines in the game. Each school was researched for the last ten years to identify where the players were being recruited from. Each pipeline will have five levels and every school was given a pipeline level based on historical dates. The pipeline for the school will never change and that will ensure strong recruiters in a region will have an advantage. Higher tier pipelines will offer bonuses and heavily nfluences the types of players they bring in. There are deeper details for each stage of recruiting and how scouting is broken down on the Campus Huddle. This can be viewedhere.
College Football 25 will launch on July 19 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. Users can pre-order the Deluxe Edition now or the EA SPORTS MVP Bundle that includes Madden NFL 25 and gain three days early access. Gamestop is also offering the Collector’s Edition of the game that includes a football, locker and jersey for College Football 25.
EA Sports College Football 25
The first entry in EA’s series since 2013’s NCAA Football 14, EA Sports College Football 25 is a sports sim that focuses on realistically capturing the college football scene.
