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Fasten your seatbelts, ladies and gentlemen, because we are roughly days away from getting EA Sports NCAA Football 25. It has been more than a decade since we have seen our beloved college football video game on our television screens.
The excitement for the game is pouring in across the country, and we could see record-breaking numbers in the first week of release. NCAA 25 will be bringing back a fan favorite: Dynasty Mode.
Dynasty Mode will include online and offline dynasties, allowing users to play with up to 32 of their peers. On July 2, the Dynasty Deep Dive dropped online. The deep-dive video was roughly 6 minutes long, narrated by Kirk Herbstreit. You can find all the details you need online as well. EA gave us an 80-page blog that included every small detail gamers have been dying to know. Now that we know what we need to know, some may ask: What school should I select to become the next college football powerhouse? The answers lie below.
What You Need to Know Before Starting Dynasty Mode
One of the most eye-popping features they gave us was the recruiting details. As we all know, the landscape of college football has changed drastically since the last video game was released in 2013. What changed the most was the addition of the playoff, recruiting and the transfer portal.
The recruiting options are similar to the old game, but the transfer portal option is new. After every season, your coach will have a small window to sway players to come over from the transfer portal. The game has a setting for each player's happiness throughout the season that could develop into them entering the portal if frustration builds high enough.
The new game's recruiting settings are much more extensive. You can direct message players, schedule visits with correlating position players to please them further, and so on. Gamers will have more creative ways to sway recruits while battling the possibility of de-commitments before signing day, which is strikingly similar to real life.
Other options include the ability to realign conferences to your liking. If you want to take a non-Power Four school like UTSA, then you can place them in a more competitive conference like the Atlantic Coast Conference. Winning does affect recruits' decision-making, and doing so in more powerful conferences may help sway their decision in your favor.
Other factors, such as distance from home, playing time and brand exposure, affect a recruit's commitment decision. Let's check out five schools you should consider rebuilding in Dynasty Mode that were left out of EA's top 25 (listed above).
5. SMU Mustangs
SMU is such an intriguing football program and could be loads of fun to rebuild in the game. Once upon a time, SMU was a national powerhouse. The Mustangs were championship contenders in the early 1980s. That was until until they got hit with harsh sanctions in 1987. Those sanctions were so crippling that the school has yet to bounce back to what they once were since.
Nonetheless, the Mustangs have been on the rise in recruiting this summer. This shows promise for the program's future. Ty Hawkins, a four-star quarterback who was committed to TCU, recently flipped to the Mustangs. They also earned commitments from four-star prospects Daylon Singleton and Chinedu Onyeagoro.
Unfortunately, the game will not put the current high school players in the game as recruits in the first season. However, commitments like these give the program signs of life. Another huge reason for selecting SMU is sophomore quarterback Preston Stone. He will make it easy for a user in the first season to settle in, assuming his overall effort aligns with his great play. Stone finished with roughly 3,200 yards passing, 28 touchdowns and only 6 interceptions. His QBR ranked in the top 30.
4. UCF Knights
Central Florida, like SMU, also showed a short run of dominance in college football. However, their run was much more recent than the Mustangs. UCF finished its 2017 season undefeated. But it did not get a chance in the College Football Playoff due to lack of competition on its schedule. Younger gamers may remember this era when Gabriel Davis and Shaqueem Griffin were a part of the team. In protest of the committee's decision, the program declared themselves national champions.
Since then, we have yet to see UCF finish undefeated. Despite that, some interesting names have passed through the Knights program, such as Dillon Gabriel. This would be a fun school to take over. Currently, their recruiting class ranks No. 28 in the country behind programs like Ole Miss and Oklahoma State. This shows yet another sign of life in the program's future: take over the head coaching job and bring the Knights back to glory.
3. Georgia Tech Yellow Jackets
Georgia Tech was a frequently used school for the old video games. The reason for that is the anomaly of an offensive system they ran. From 2008, up until roughly five years ago, Georgia Tech ran the triple-option offense. This was one of the most fun-yet-intricate offenses you could run on the game. If you knew how to run it, then Georgia Tech was an incredibly fun school to use. In addition, the school's recruiting class is currently ranked No. 25 in the nation. This is encouraging for the program if they want to return to consistently appearing in bowl games.
Despite them moving on from the triple option a handful of years ago, you can still apply this offense to your school in EA Sports NCAA Football 25. This is exciting for classic Georgia Tech fans who prefer the previous system that the Yellow Jackets ran. Along with the novelty of the triple-option offense, there have still been some big-name pass catchers in the program's history. They include Calvin Johnson and Darren Waller. The triple option could give older gamers a feel as if they're back in the old days.
2. Nebraska Cornhuskers
Teams like SMU, UCF and Georgia Tech may sound too experimental for some users. Let's get to a former Power Five dynasty, the Nebraska Cornhuskers. Nebraska holds the most national titles of anyone on this list with five. Three of these were in the 1990s, falling into a true dynasty category.
Nebraska joined the Big Ten Conference in 2011 after departing from the Big 12 Conference. Ever since, it has been a struggle. Fans were recently disappointed when former coach Scott Frost did not work out. Matt Rhule is now at the coaching helm. Also, fans are excited about his current No. 29 overall-ranked recruiting class heading into 2025. Another exciting factor in Nebraska's current outlook is true freshman quarterback Dylan Raiola. Rhule was able to flip the No. 3-ranked QB from Georgia to the Cornhuskers last year. Perhaps this will start a domino effect for the future.
This rebuild won't happen overnight. However, Nebraska has the brand exposure to be rebuilt in more than just a video game. We have seen some notable names come through the program and take college football by storm. Among them are Ndamukong Suh, Taylor Martinez, Ahman Green, Will Shields and Robert Craig. Nebraska hasn't had a winning season since 2016. Can you change that?
1. Missouri Tigers
This might be the most shocking team to be left out of the top 25-ranked teams in NCAA Football 25. Missouri was electric in 2023, bursting onto the scene by defeating Ohio State in the Cotton Bowl. Although the Buckeyes were missing many key players, the Tigers were still a fortune stroke of serendipity in 2023. They logged an 11-2 record and finished at No. 8 in the AP Poll. That marked their best finish since 2013. Coach Eliah Drinkwitz has done a phenomenal job of bringing the Tigers' program back to relevancy since he took over the job in 2020.
Shockingly, a top-10-ranked team in 2023 did not finish in EA's top 25. That is astonishing. You will get serious bang for your buck with the Tigers, who certainly argue for being in the top 25 most-talented teams. A key factor for selecting the Tigers is elite pass catcher Luther Burden III. Burden will be a safety blanket for users to find in the passing game and should be no less than a 93 overall. Missouri currently holds the No. 18-ranked recruiting class per On3, including a commitment from five-star QB Matt Zollers. This shows that the Tigers may have a promising future.
In conclusion, the last time Missouri was in the mix, like they were in 2023, was when the NCAA games were approaching their ugly fate in 2013. Some fans may remember using them on the old video games with the legendary QB-WR duo of Chase Daniel and Jeremy Maclin. That being said, there could certainly be some nostalgia that comes into play. The Tigers are by far the best team to take that is not in EA's top 25 rankings. Assuming you want to be competitive in Year 1.
Editor's note: This article was updated to reflect Georgia Tech ran the triple-option offense under former coach Paul Johnson from 2008-2018.
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No James Madison? Everyone's favorite fringe contender?
Thank you for giving Mizzou the credit they deserve.