College Football 25 Balance and Realism XP Sliders From OSfan093

I always like seeing more people take a swing at XP sliders in College Football 25, and OSfan093 has created a set that you can scope out.

It goes with some sliders that are a little more extreme for some positions, but since I don’t think there’s a “perfect” way to handle the XP/progression in this game, I’m always down to tinker with another set and see what things look like over a couple seasons since I don’t think you can really “ruin” a dynasty tinkering with these.

College Football 25 XP Sliders

Hello all, I’ve been working on an XP slider set for longer than I’d like to admit and thought I’d share the completed results. My main goals with this set were to create a more balanced player development ecosystem, replicate real life draft numbers at each position, and have the top talent in the country be more positionally diverse (more info below). Keep in mind most of the issues I tried to address are a product of broken in game development systems, therefore all we can really do with XP sliders is improve the situation not fix it entirely. All testing was done on Normal Coach progression.

QB 116
HB 24
TE 146
WR 76
FB 300
T 86
G 0
C 10
DE 40
DT 286
MLB 28
OLB 34
CB 92
FS 132
SS 212
K 150
P 170

MORE INFO:

Roster Players vs Recruits: This set was designed mainly around the development of recruits, not real players. I tested years 2027-2030 across different dynasties. This means the first 5 seasons of a dynasty won’t be as realistic as future seasons. That being said, I still factored in the development of roster players and the differences won’t be very noticeable. The upside is the long term health of the game mode will be superior to other methods.

Rating Scale: All ratings mentioned in this post are “true ratings” not including any system boosts. 94/95+ players will be very rare(0-4 per season). You will see more in the first 5 seasons and less in subsequent seasons. 92/93 rated players are a bit more common and generally will be the best players at their position. 90/91 are still elite and are generally top 3-5 players at their position. The threshold to get drafted is usually around 87. (FB, K, P are different)

Draft Classes: You will see more JRs and SOs get drafted than default, and a more appropriate number of players (by position) will be drafted both in rd 1-3, and in total. It’s not perfect and will vary year to year, but idk that it can be much better than this.

DBs & Catching: These were the hardest to balance because as you increase the XP, you increase the catching ratings that are already incredibly overinflated by default. I can say with 100% certainty that these numbers are the highest you should set them UNLESS you’re okay with 99 catching ratings all over the place for the sake of better OVR balance. Because of this the rating scale of safeties is lower than it should be, the best only reaching 90/91 ovr.

LBs & Pass Rush: No matter what you set XP sliders to, Pass Coverage OLBs will have the best PMV/FMV. I tried my best to limit that, but the tradeoff is Power Rushers are a bit weaker than they should be. Any higher and too many OLBs get drafted. So I suggest that if you run a 3-4, consider Pass Coverage OLBs to be Speed Rushers (which doesn’t exist). MLBs also are overinflated at pass rushing but again this setting will limit it somewhat.

QB/WR: Tend to have higher OVRs on the top end, but thats fine. It’s not very noticeable, helps with draft numbers, and is realistic IMO.

TE: Can vary year to year. Rarely you will see a 95+ rated player but it’s always a blocking TE and they aren’t actually that good its just the way the archetypes work. Blocking TE’s get higher ovr but Possession & Vertical Threats can still become 90+ and have better individual ratings.

HB: Will sometimes be higher rated the first 5 seasons, but improves after that. I’ve only seen a few power backs actually break 90ovr. They are actually the most balanced and can have fantastic individual ratings, but due to the archetype system their ovr stays low.

C: Some years the best will be 89, some years 92/93. Any higher though and way too many get drafted.

FB/K/P: These are personal preference. I have yet to see a K or P drafted and I’ve seen them rated as highly as 91, although the best is usually high 80s. FBs can get drafted but it’s very rare. The best FB is usually mid 80s. Can reach 87/88 but I did see a 90ovr 1 time.