The 8 Kinds of Dynasties in EA Sports College Football 25
Breaking a massive menu into manageable sections.
The EA Sports college football video game releases July 19. Most of us do not care about microtransactions and multiplayer. We will show up to play Dynasty Mode. The thrill little kids get when they build a castle out of blocks lies dormant in us, and the genius of the old NCAA Football games was that they let us craft fantasy worlds. Building a little corner of the universe in Fortnite is fine. But moving Hawaii to the Pac-12 and winning national championships with a five-star QB named Talladega von Oelhoffen is way more fun.
Your enjoyment of the game may hinge on picking the right team to guide to Valhalla. With 134 options, it’s a big decision in consequence and scope. As a public service, I’ve broken those teams into eight menu categories. Call it the Split Zone Duo Field Guide to Dynasty Mode Enjoyment (SZDFG2DME).
Option 1: Your Favorite Team
Maryland, in my case. Which brings me to …
Option 2: Power Conference Longshots
Make yourself a virtual Bear Bryant—but the Kentucky kind, not the Bama kind. Some purists will only start a Dynasty with a non-power program, but there’s a particular fun in taking over a non-blue-blood in a big league. The recruiting is more manageable in that you’ll be able to land a few blue-chippers. You get more games against blue-bloods. And at the end of the day, guiding Oklahoma State to a national title is barely a lesser feat than doing it at Tulsa. One of my favorite Dynasties in the game’s last version was my juggernaut at Kentucky.
Includes: Arizona, Arizona State, Arkansas, Baylor, Boston College, BYU, California, Cincinnati, Colorado, Duke, Georgia Tech, Houston, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Iowa State, Kansas, Kansas State, Kentucky, Louisville, Maryland, Michigan State, Minnesota, Mississippi State, Missouri, NC State, North Carolina, Oklahoma State, Pitt, Purdue, Rutgers, SMU, South Carolina, Syracuse, TCU, Tennessee, Texas Tech, UCLA, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin.
Option 3: The Group of 5 Hipster Menu
Here are teams that might have a cool stadium, a long-ago history of success, or a good enough roster that you’re not starting from nothing (usually). Enjoy playing on Boise State’s blue turf, EMU’s dystopian gray turf from Stranger Things, Appalachian State’s mountain field surrounded by stunning forest, or UTSA’s now-retro surface at the Alamodome. Are you dismayed by Middle Tennessee’s or North Texas’ years of stagnancy in a vibrant region with lots of solid recruits? Would you like ECU to once again become a graveyard for ACC visitors? Be the change you want to see in the world.
Includes: Appalachian State, Arkansas State, Boise State, Colorado State, East Carolina, Eastern Michigan, Fresno State, Georgia Southern, Georgia State, Jacksonville State, James Madison, Marshall, Middle Tennessee, North Texas, Northern Illinois, Ohio, Old Dominion, San Jose State, South Alabama, South Florida, Southern Miss, Toledo, UTSA, Utah State, Western Kentucky, Wyoming
Option 4: Football Masochism
You want all the challenges associated with building a proper progrum. You don’t mind playing weeknight games in frigid virtual conditions and receiving no national notoriety. You want to pull off ridiculous stunts to get the student body at Charlotte behind the 49ers. You have no problem being small enough that you need to allow one of six Louisiana Tech reporters into every practice. You crave a chance to prove high-level football is possible in New Mexico. You possess in your bones a belief that Akron could one day win 10 games. You see it as an appealing design feature that Sam Houston has a track around its field.
Includes: Akron, Ball State, Bowling Green, Buffalo, Central Michigan, Charlotte, FAU, FIU, Kent State, Louisiana, ULM, Louisiana Tech, Miami (Ohio), Nevada, New Mexico, New Mexico State, Sam Houston, Temple, Texas State, Troy, Tulsa, UConn, UMass, UTEP, Western Michigan
Option 5: Playbook Schools
Army, Navy, and Air Force will run various versions of the flexbone option in the game. Kennesaw and Coastal will be quite optionish too, I am led to believe. Enjoy running a bunch of RPOs at UCF, sampling coordinator Brennan Marion’s “Go-Go Offense” at UNLV, and deploying the agonizingly slow mesh point between the QB and running back at Wake Forest. If you like the satisfaction of running the same plays over and over or doing something out of the ordinary, have at it. You can also cheat God by taking one of those playbooks to another school.
Includes: Air Force, Army, Coastal Carolina, Kennesaw State, Navy, UCF, UNLV, Wake Forest
Option 6: Transplant Candidates
The Hebrew saying tikkun olam means “repair the world.” You could do your own tikkun olam by creating a Big 12 lifeboat for Oregon State and Wazzu. You could undo our entire Dead Letters debut episode and put Tulane back in the SEC, where it was a power in the middle of the 20th century. You could exact payback against the Alabama board of trustees by depositing UAB in the SEC. You could bump Memphis up to the Big 12 now instead of waiting for real life.
Includes: Hawaii, Memphis, Oregon State, San Diego State, Tulane, UAB, Washington State
Option 7: Defy Gravity
Want to pretend we live in a world where Miami can still build the best roster in the country? The game will permit that. Want to ignore the systematic breakdown of all of Nebraska’s advantages under Bob Devaney and Tom Osborne? It’s right there for you. Want to make sure a smart-kid school is invested in football at the highest level? Want to deny the shifts in recruiting that have hobbled Virginia Tech? Want to convince yourselves that Mississippi powerbrokers won’t find a way to fuck up Ole Miss? The world is your oyster.
Includes: Miami, Nebraska, Northwestern, Ole Miss, Rice, Stanford, Vanderbilt, Virginia, Virginia Tech
Option 8: Cop Mode
What you do with your $70 is between you and your creator.
Includes: Alabama, Auburn, Clemson, Florida, FSU, Georgia, Liberty, LSU, Michigan, Notre Dame, Ohio State, Oklahoma, Oregon, Penn State, Texas, Texas A&M, USC, Washington
Do you want that all in a handy visual format?
Don’t forget the other option: Team Builder for the D3 school you went to, so you can pretend to give press conferences in your school branded polo.
Option 9: IOWA