College Football 25’s New Dynasty Mode Might Be Even Better Than Maddens’ Franchise Mode

EA Sports recently highlighted College Football 25’s Dynasty mode in great detail, and its innovations make it look like a serious rival to Madden’s Franchise mode. Unlike Madden, which has continued cranking out yearly releases, College Football 25 is EA’s first college football game in 10 years. It’s also the first one to be released without the NCAA branding. As such a notable release, EA was likely feeling the pressure to deliver something special, and it looks like they’re doing just that.

Not only has College Football 25 introduced many changes from its predecessor NCAA Football 14, but EA has also taken steps to differentiate it from the Madden franchise. This is a nice touch since EA is selling a bundle of both College Football 25 and Madden NFL 25, and it would feel like a waste if the games were too similar. However, if players are trying to decide on just one of the two games, College Football 25’s Dynasty mode may be a huge selling point in its favor.

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Players Need To Compete With Other Colleges To Attract Players

At first glance, recruiting new players in Madden NFL 25 and College Football 25 might not seem all that different. Both involve picking up new players at the start of a season to bolster a team’s roster. College Football 25 generates new High School prospects, while Madden NFL 25 presents players with new talent during the NFL Draft. However, the actual process of recruiting players is a much deeper experience in College Football 25.

College Football 25’s recruitment process isn’t as simple as picking the best talent for one’s team while paying attention to a salary cap. Players will need to attract high school talent to apply for their school by meeting a series of requirements. College Football 25 uses 14 different metrics that determine whether a player is interested in going to a specific school in the game. Players will need to meet enough of these requirements to be in that student’s top choices.

Additionally, players can try to sway an initially uninterested prospect by doing things like inviting them for a campus tour. The game also offers bonuses to savvy players who do things like plan visits for Quarterbacks and wide receivers at the same time. This can help increase the chance that the player can recruit certain talent. However, all possible recruits also have a deal-breaker requirement, and if players fail to meet it, they are out of luck.

Now, some players may prefer Madden NFL 25’s more stripped-down version of recruiting new players. After all, if they are more interested in just playing some football, then it might get tiring managing so many different aspects of the game. However, players who want a more immersive experience will definitely gravitate toward College Football 25, thanks to these new gameplay elements.

Players Can Specialize As Several Different Types Of Coach

Another new feature present in College Football 25’s dynasty mode is the large number of skills players can use to upgrade their coaching abilities. Players will pick a starting coach archetype, and then purchase skills for it on a tree as they earn points towards it. Players can also specialize into multiple archetypes, allowing them to focus on multiple areas that can improve their coaching such as recruiting or motivating players.

These skill trees put players in the role of a football coach with certain skills who is improving as they gain more experience. This combined with the Coach Carousel — a period when the player will receive offers from other schools — makes the experience more individualized. Instead of being a nebulous franchise like in the Madden series, players actually take on a specific role within an organization and can switch to another team if they get a better offer.

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Players Can Change What Teams Go In What Conference

College football conferences recently got a bit of a shake-up. This has resulted in some interesting developments like the PAC-12 being whittled down to just two teams. If players don’t enjoy the new conferences, or they just want to experiment with different groups of teams, College Football 25’s Dynasty mode allows them to create their own custom conferences.

This ability isn’t just great for rebalancing the world of college football, but it also works well for online play. If a group of friends want to create their own online Dynasty game, they are free to choose whatever teams they like and create a custom conference for them all. This allows for a lot of flexibility in setting up this type of league that isn’t available in a game like Madden. EA’s deep dive into the mode’s mechanics explains how players can shape their own conference.

One major reason why College Football 25’s Dynasty mode is a bit more exciting than Madden’s Franchise mode comes down to the differences between professional football and college football. Whether they go pro or stop playing after their four years, college football teams are always going to be a temporary stop along an athlete’s journey. This means that players can’t sit back and rest on their laurels once they’ve put together a strong team in College Football 25’s Dynasty mode. As athletes graduate and move on, players need to replace them.

This means that College Football 25’s Dynasty mode stays fresh through each fictional year of its existence. In contrast, Madden’s Franchise mode usually gets stale after a little while. This is because players will get a solid roster after some time, and there will be less of a need to constantly look for new prospects. This type of stagnation isn’t possible in the college model, making College Football 25’s mode more fun in the long term.

Similar to College Football 25’s more labor-intensive recruiting process, some players may not want this type of experience. It’s understandable if players do want an endpoint where they feel like their team has progressed as far as it can go, and want to just play with an optimized team. Madden NFL 25 may very well be the better choice for those players. What matters most in this regard is that EA Sports at least created two distinct experiences for players to choose from, instead of simply re-skinning one game and putting it in two separate boxes.

Source: EA Sports/YouTube

EA Sports College Football 25

Franchise

EA Sports College Football

Platform(s)

PS5 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S

Released

July 19, 2024

Developer(s)

EA Orlando