One of the unique aspects of College Football 25 Dynasty mode is the recruiting process. It’s what made Dynasty extremely unique in a sea of professional sports video games where free agency or the draft was the only way to get new players to your team.
The process is definitely more difficult and nuanced than in NCAA Football 14, but that is what makes it fun. This post will detail the best methods to recruit in College Football 25, based on hundreds of hours of play.
First of all, I would turn off auto-recruiting in the League Settings page. While it’s nice to get help from the computer in recruiting, the computer is typically a terrible recruiter compared to the methods mentioned in this guide.
Preseason
The preseason is when you set your recruiting board for the upcoming season. Although there are only two actions – scout and offer scholarship – this week sets the tone for recruiting for the entire season.
Most players will take either 20-30 hours to fully scout, depending on the level of your coach. Scholarships take 5 hours, and you can be pretty wanton with them due to the fact that deleting a player off your list gives you back that scholarship.
When choosing your initial list, pick 10-15 players where you are high in a players’ interest (and maybe a position of need). Whether it’s a 5/4/3 star depends on your school, but you definitely want to focus on the best players that are interested in your school. Scout these players fully and offer them a scholarship.
Players in a pipeline state – typically where you have 3+ players – are also important. This can usually give you a boost with recruits (even ones who don’t have a preference for being near home) and will help with players becoming initially interested in you in future years.
Because of the hours limits in the next stages of the process, you will need to get creative in the remaining 20-25 spots. The best method I have found is to go gem hunting, i.e. add a bunch of 3 stars, scout them fully, and offer them a scholarship. These players almost always go unnoticed early in the process and end up being good players that don’t require hard core recruiting.
If a player ends up as a dud, delete them from your list. It ends up being a waste of hours, but it is worth it when you find a few gems.
Another key aspect of this cycle is to keep a background focus on a players’ preferences. Obviously you’re wasting your time if a recruit wants to play for a Championship contender and you’re not at that level yet, but that will usually show on the prospect list page.
First Few Weeks
If you follow the method above, you should have a decent list of players you are in the top three (and hopefully first) ranking. If you fall below 3rd, it’s improbable that you will land them, especially if competing schools are top tier.
Given the hours limits, at best you can max out the hours for 10-15 players. Focusing on the players that already like you, plays an important position or position of need, and/or is a gem are the keys in these weeks.
You’ll definitely be leaving some talent on the table due to the hours limits, but many of those 3 stars you scouted in the preseason will retain interest in your program without hours. At some point you will allocate hours to them, but it’s not necessarily required early.
Middle of the season
As recruits dwindle their team list, you’ll have to change your strategy. Some players may commit just based on the above actions, but most players will need more nudging to choose your program.
Of your focused group, make sure to check in weekly to see if you are able to use the “hard sell” action. It takes 40 hours, but it is almost always worth it. The only nuance here is that you want to wait to hard sell when you know the recruits’ 3 preferences, so you are getting to full effect of this powerful action.
After that, you can use the rest of a players’ hours on other actions.
“Soft sell” and “Sway” are two other options available in the middle of the season. “Soft sell” only takes 20 hours, but should really only be used when you know the players’ preferences and you are leading by a significant margin. “Sway” is only effective when your team doesn’t meet the players’ preferences and you need a Hail Mary to get a player.
As you progress more into the season, players will start to commit. This is where you will reallocate your hours to other players, especially those 3 star gems that are still interested in your program. While I recommend maxing out the hours, if they are still interested in your program without any hours, you could probably get away with 25 hour actions only.
As for scheduling visits, they can be very powerful. Look at the possible effect of a win/loss and pick the game where you have the best chance of winning while also helping your chances at landing the recruit. In addition, focus on players where the race is close, because you are only allowed so many per week. And scheduling them as early as possible is essential as well.
Back Half of the Season
By game seven or eight, your original list will dwindle by either committing to your school or another, or losing interest in your program. You’ll have to look into new prospects in a vastly diminished prospect list.
The key is to go after players in their “Open” or “Top 8” phase, as this will give you the best shot to land them. Although there will be the rare 4 or 5 star, this stage is filled with mostly 3 stars.
So, the key again will be focusing on scouting to find gems (or avoiding busts). One trick to find good players at this point is seeing who is on their interest list. If the list is filled with top programs, they’re typically a decent player.
It may be a bit more difficult to recruit them when facing the likes of Alabama or Ohio State, but those programs are typically not giving these players many hours. So maxing out possible recruits at this stage is essential.
By the end of the season, you should be sitting at around 20-25+ commits. Obviously you have 35 slots, but even AI-powered teams are usually sitting around 25-30 by the end of the recruiting cycle.
Offseason Recruiting
Although this offers another 4 weeks to recruit, relying on offseason recruiting is typically a losing proposition. At this point you are finalizing a few recruits on your list who have waited a bit longer to commit.
You also have the transfer portal. Although this is a new set of prospects, getting the high octane transfers is relatively impossible for most programs. So focusing on positions of need and players already interested in your program is key.
For transfer portal prospects, you’ll follow a similar protocol as before. Scout fully, max out hours (you have way more than you need in the offseason), offer scholarships, and hard sell as soon as possible. Visits are also very important in the shortened time frame, so schedule them as soon as you find out the prospects’ preferences.
Other tips
- “The Recruiter” is probably the most important coaching trait. Recruiting is undoubtedly the most important part of dynasty mode, and this trait makes it so much easier to recruit. You’ll get more hours per player, higher initial interest, and other benefits.
- Keep checking your “Team Needs” by pressing the right joystick on your controller. It will list how many players you need at each position, but more importantly, the prospect list will still flag a position as ‘Need’ even if you meet or exceed the number of recruits at a position needed. It will save you from over recruiting certain positions.
- Linebackers and offensive lineman prospects are few and far between after a few weeks. You want to focus on these positions early. Positions like RB, WR, and even QB typically have a good amount of decent prospects even in later periods.
The team at NCAAFHQ will update this post as we continue to play College Football 25.