EA Sports College Football 25 is almost here, and if you’re like me, you can’t wait to play the fan-favorite Dynasty mode. If you’re new to the game, Dynasty mode allows you to take the role of a head coach as you build a powerhouse football program from the ground up. You can also take the easy route by taking over a established program, but the real fun is with the smaller schools. You’ll have to manage rosters, recruiting, and the transfer portal as you work way to a dynasty.

As we all know, recruiting is the lifeblood of college football. If you’re taking over a smaller program, you’ll need to recruit well over many seasons to build a championship-caliber team. In this article, we’ll show you how to successfully recruit in Dynasty mode as a smaller school.

Choose The Recruiting Backstory in Dynasty

When you begin, you’ll have to decide what type of coach you want to be. Always choose the base archetype of Recruiter if you want to get an edge on the recruiting trail. This will give you a big advantage if you’re trying to find success as a smaller school.

Once you own an archetype, you can purchase the abilities within it using coach points. The recruiter abilities allow you to get upgrades for positional recruiting, extra recruiting hours, and more.

Set Up Your Recruiting Board and Scout Prospects Immediately

Do not wait a week to do this. It is a simple step but will help you in the long run. You can add up to 35 players on your board. When you set up your recruiting board, pay attention to your school’s strengths and weaknesses. You’ll want to use this to find recruits that your school would appeal most to. If we use Stanford for example, they have A+ Academic Prestige but are a C- Championship Contender. With this in mind, you’ll want to build your board with recruits who value academics, campus lifestyle, and being closer to home.

Another important factor is playing styles and understanding the identity of your team. Playing style is a measure of how well a specific recruit fits with what you do. This all depends on what your team does well and how that aligns with a recruit’s archetype. At smaller schools, some players you simply won’t have a shot with. Certain recruits have deal breakers that show you what you’re missing.

Scout, Scout, Scout

Once you create your board, scouting different prospects will be a very important step to find what you’re looking for. Scouting will cost recruiting hours which you can see on the top right corner. This is why having the recruiter archetype is useful, since it will give you boosts to your hours.

Scout a player until you find the attributes you are looking for. You don’t always have to scout them 100%. Once you’ve scouted a player, offer them a scholarship. A heavily recruited player may get snatched up by a bigger school, but talent will fall through the cracks giving you a chance to upgrade your team. You may be recruiting a 3-star quarterback but after scouting he has 96 speed. That’s a difference-maker for your team at a smaller school.

Occasionally you will uncover a gem while scouting. These are players that are much higher overall than their actual ranking. Finding these 3-star and 4-star gems will be key to building a smaller school, as these players will be easier for you to recruit than 5-star prospects. Conversely, you will find busts that are worse than their recruiting ranking.

Hopefully these recruiting tips will help you on your first Dynasty in College Football 25. At a smaller school, recruiting will be a marathon, not a sprint. It may take a couple seasons to establish yourself on the recruiting trail. Remember to take advantage of players that are being under-recruited and make sure the players align with your school’s strengths.

***

Want to write on Sports? Come Join us.

Subscribe to Fantom Sports on YouTube!

Follow Fantom Sports on Twitch!