College Football 25 recruiting guide for Dynasty mode
Jul. 20, 2024Grab the best high school prospects with our College Football 25 recruiting guide
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The College Football 25 recruiting mechanic delivers more enjoyment than anything else currently on offer in the sports genre. It enables you to continually refresh yourCollege Football 25dynasty roster with high school talent, and brilliantly blends fun and competitiveness. Tired of missing out on the best prospects? Then upgrade your chances of hoovering up the latest star QB with GR+’s College Football 25 recruiting guide.
College Football 25 recruiting basics
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:
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.
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. This grants 70 hours at specific positions.
Here’s a list of what you can do with those 50 hours, for each prospect:
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!
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 someCollege Football 25 celebrations. Until the whole process begins again to start the next season…
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I’m GamesRadar’s sports editor, and obsessed with NFL, WWE, MLB, AEW, and occasionally things that don’t have a three-letter acronym – such as Chvrches, Bill Bryson, and Streets Of Rage 4. (All the Streets Of Rage games, actually.) Even after three decades I still have a soft spot for Euro Boss on the Amstrad CPC 464+.
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