The House Rules Hub for Recruiting in College Football 25 Dynasty Mode

The cycle of yearly sports games involves a need to find the “new” in the old as the year progresses. The idea of “house rules” is something that gets used a lot with our sports games as they become “too easy” and so you start looking for new ways to challenge yourself. With College Football 25, house rules get kicked around a lot as it relates to recruiting in dynasty mode, and so I wanted to finally put together a hub where I include some of the various house rules that have been mentioned on OS (plus some of my own).

Assuming you bought College Football 25 at launch rather than waiting for a recent sale, you’re probably very good at recruiting at this point. And if you read stuff like my all-in-one recruiting guide, you’re probably even better at it. So while I was working on an update to that recruiting guide for this week’s newsletter (you can sign-up for the newsletter here if you want to get that update on Friday morning in your inbox), I kept kicking around the idea of including house rules in it. Ultimately, I don’t think that guide is the place for them — the guide will be more fun than the last one, it’s just going to be pointing out some stuff to try more than being a full-on “here’s what to do” guide like the first one. With that said, I did want to share some of the various house rules in one spot for those who want to up the challenge or realism of recruiting in dynasty mode (or put some rules in place for their online dynasties).

House rules for College Football 25 recruiting ultimately involve the various tools at your disposal and how you can wield them.

• Your team’s star/prestige rating
• Your school’s location/your pipelines/where you recruit from
• How you use scouting
• How many players you’re allowed to recruit
• What level of players you’re allowed to recruit
• Which type of players you’re allowed to recruit

You could add other house rules that impact things like which coaching upgrades you and your assistants are allowed to have as well (especially the ones that apply to recruiting), but I’ll mostly keep that aspect out of this (except for when I mention my own house rules) because there is no way to reset your coaching tree in ongoing dynasties.

I also don’t think you need to take one complete set of rules from one person or another. This is about what you want to do and how challenging or complex you want to make things. This is why I’m going to include some “full” house rules (including my own), but will also include some one-off rules that you can maybe take and add to your own customized set of recruiting house rules.

Okay, with that all out of the way, let’s jump into this (I’ll also add more house rules to this article if some of y’all post some good ones in the comments/in this thread on OS).

College Football 25 Dynasty Mode Recruiting House Rules

First, I’m going to share a couple “complete” sets of house rules from OS users that I think make sense. Here is OS user Seeker7‘s house rules:

After finding it way too easy to take a 1 star school to the top in relatively few seasons, I decided to create some house rules. I’m sharing here because using these house rules has made the game much much more challenging for me and every game matter. Its pretty simple:

• 1 star school: 1 star players from anywhere. 2 star IN STATE players only.
• 1.5 star school: 1 star players from anywhere. 2 star IN PIPELINE players only.
• 2 star school: 2 star players from anywhere. 3 star IN STATE players only.
• 2.5 star school: 2 star players from anywhere. 3 star IN PIPELINE players only.
• 3 star school: 3 star players from anywhere. 4 star IN STATE players only.
• 3.5 star school: 3 star players from anywhere. 4 star IN PIPLINE players only.
• 4 star school: 4 star players from anywhere. 5 star IN PIPELINE players only.
• 4.5 and 5 star school: Any players.

I started in 1 star Arkansas State. Season 2 was at 2 stars, Season 3 was at 2.5 stars, Season 3 was rough as default players moved on and for season 4 was back down to 2 stars. Season 5 back up to 2.5 stars. If I can ever get to 3 stars, then I can finally go after an in state 4 star recruit (great role playing element here….big time in state recruit picks Arkansas State over Arkansas!).

OS user kmoser, uses this set of house rules for high-prestige schools (4-5 stars):

Rules:

Five-Star Recruits
Select 7 five-star recruits in the offseason recruiting period as follows:

• 3 must be in-state.
• 2 can be out-of-state but must be within your pipeline, and any pipeline score is fine. If these 2 are also in-state, that is fine as well.
• 2 from outside your pipeline, but must have you in their top 5 to start the season

These 7 will be the only five-star recruits you can have on your board for the entire year, and you cannot replace them. Once you have selected the 7, you can then scout them if you wish. This means that if one turns out to be a bust, then you live with it and either continue recruiting them or work on the 6 other players. Similarly, if one of them commits elsewhere, they need to stay on your board and you will need to work on getting the other 6 to commit.

Four-Star Recruits
Select 23 4-star recruits in the offseason recruiting period as follows:

• 10 must be in-state
• 8 must be in your pipeline, and if they are also in-state then that is fine
• 5 from outside your pipeline, but must have you in their top 5 when the season starts

Similar to the five-star recruits, these are the only 23 you can pick for the entire season and they cannot be replaced.

If everything goes right, you could potentially land all 7 five-stars, which most likely gives you the #1 recruiting class. However, chances are you will only get 4-5 of them, as well as only 15-19 of the four stars.

There is no limit on recruiting 3 star players.

As for year to year success factors, I felt like the below could give somewhat of a baseline to play by:

• If you lose more than three games, total five-stars drops from 7 to 5, and total four-stars drops from 23 to 20 next year.
• If you miss the playoffs that year, you can only recruit 6 five-stars and 21 four-stars next year.
• If you make the playoffs, the numbers remain the same.
• If you make at least the semi-final game, your total five-stars goes from 7 to 8, and total four-stars from 23 to 24.
• If you win the National Championship, you can recruit up to 9 total five-stars, and up to 25 total four-stars next year.

You can use these rules each year, so if you were to win back to back National Championships, you could recruit up to 11 total five-stars, for example.

Beyond those two full sets, I’m here are some random house rules that I think make sense:

• No recruiting Scrambling ATH QBs
• No going after players 3 stars or above at midseason who have no offers elsewhere (you could relax this rule and just say 4-5 star players)
• You can only recruit players from your pipelines
  • Exception: If a player’s preseason top-10 teams has your school in it, you may recruit that player regardless.
• You can only recruit players from your top pipeline (usually your home state), and otherwise can only recruit players that placed your school in the top 10 during preseason.
• You can only recruit two stars above your school’s star/prestige level
• No scouting at all, or at least no scouting after preseason
• No removing players from your board until they commit elsewhere, even if you no longer have interest in them or realize you won’t be able to get them
• No adding players to your board after preseason (your 35 targets are your 35 targets)
• You can only recruit players from the “recommended” tab
• No hard selling allowed
• No recruiting players who don’t have at least one offer from another school
• You can only recruit players that fit your scheme. So, for example:
  • If you play lots of zone, you can only recruit Zone CBs
  • If you play 3-4 defense, you can only recruit Run Stopper DTs
• No over-recruiting positions. This depends on the position, but you shouldn’t have 6 QBs on your team or recruit 4 DTs so then you don’t worry about it at all for your next 2-3 recruiting classes.

My Own House Rules

Okay, this is a lot in some categories, but I want to give you everything I do. On top of that, yes, I have stolen from many others to come up with this list of rules. I’ve read lots of other people’s rules on OS and elsewhere (and this goes back NCAA Football 14) and yoinked what I like from many others to craft my own set for College Football 25.

Star/Prestige Rating

I take wholesale the concept from Seeker7 as a baseline and only slightly tweak from there:

• 1 star school: 1 star players from anywhere. 2 star best pipeline only
• 1.5 star school: 1 star players from anywhere. 2 star in-pipeline players only.
• 2 star school: 2 star players from anywhere. 3 star best pipeline only.
• 2.5 star school: 2 star players from anywhere. 3 star in-pipeline players only.
• 3 star school: 3 star players from anywhere. 4 star best pipeline only.
• 3.5 star school: 3 star players from anywhere. 4 star in-pipeline players only.
• 4 star school: 4 star players from anywhere. 5 star in-pipeline players only.
• 4.5 and 5 star school: Players from anywhere

In the case of ties where multiple pipelines are strongest at your school, go by the in-state pipeline first. If you have multiple in-state pipelines (Central Florida and South Florida, for example), pick one (your choice).

Those rules are for when you get multiple years into dynasties or once you’re changing schools.

In Year 1, I go more by the real school. I use Rivals to look at the recruit rankings, but you can use whoever you prefer, and I will look at the last 3-4 years of recruiting classes and then figure out what my initial class should look like.

So I’ll use Stanford as a random example:

Between 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, here is what their breakdown was for the stars:

• 5 stars: 0, 0, 0, 0
• 4 stars: 6, 5, 6, 2
• 3 stars: 19, 13, 14, 13

So in Year 1, I can’t recruit 5-star players, and I can only recruit as many as 6 4-star players. I can recruit up to 19 3-star players — and then any 2-star and 1-star players I want.

After Year 1, we revert and go by the original rules mentioned as a baseline, but still with limits in place that we’ll get into more in the later sections.

Big Board/Targets

• The 35 players you add during preseason are the 35 players you’re allowed to recruit all year. You can obviously remove players if they pick other schools, but you can’t add new players to your board until the transfer portal. I like this because you need to look at the other initial schools he’s interested in and figure out by looking at the pipelines and schools whether a player is worth the risk of being added to your board or not.
• During the transfer portal, you can add back up to the 35 players, but you can only have a net gain of four players in the portal. This means:
  • If 8 players transfer out of your school, you can recruit 12 players in the portal.
  • If zero players transfer from your school, you can recruit 4 players in the portal.

Recruiting

• Under no circumstances are you allowed to hard sell. I believe the hard sell mechanic is the most OP recruiting mechanic in the game. The 40 points you can give via hard sell (assuming three solid grades are attached to it) is stronger than the 50 points of “sending the house” or any other permutation of spending 50-65+ points in the game.
• No matter how great your school becomes, you cannot recruit more than four 5-star recruits in a single season.
• No matter how great your school becomes, you cannot recruit more than 15 4-star recruits in a single season.
  • I go even one step beyond and won’t add more than a certain amount beyond those 15 4-star recruits during preseason. So if I can only recruit five 4-star recruits, I will only add eight to my board of 35 total targets — but you can sort of play that one by feel.
• Your star rating dictates the sorts of recruits you’re allowed to go after (see: the star/prestige rating section). In addition to those rules, you cannot recruit players that don’t have you in their top 10 during preseason.
  • The same rule applies to the transfer portal, but if you’re about to have below the minimum required players at a position, you can make exceptions.
  • The same rule also applies to the “top 10” rule. If 35 total players don’t have you in their top 10, you can add at positions of need based on your best pipeline and seek out “open” status players within that pipeline.

Scouting

• You can fully scout players from your best pipeline
• You can partially scout players from other pipelines (this obviously depends on your coach abilities and the abilities of your assistants in terms of how many points you can spend, so I say 40-60 percent can be scouted on a player)
• You cannot scout players from outside your pipelines

Player Types

• You cannot recruit at all outside your scheme. In a 3-4 scheme you’re looking for Run Stopper DTs, Run Stopper DEs, likely Power Rusher OLBs, and so on. If you play a heavy amount of zone coverage, only recruit zone/slot CBs. You get the idea.
• Athletes count towards positional totals. For example:
  • If you recruit 2-3 DTs, you can’t recruit an Agile ATH at center with the intent of changing his position to DT once he’s on campus.
  • If you recruit 2 TEs, you can’t recruit a Physical ATH with the idea of moving him to TE.

Roster Building

• Outside extreme scenarios where 60 percent of your roster is seniors, you should not bring more than 23-27 players to your school each year. This includes the transfer portal.
• No stacking at positions. I won’t go through them all because it depends in part on your scheme, but for example:
  • No more than 4 QBs on roster
  • No more than 5 RBs on roster
• Use common sense overall for this. You shouldn’t have 4 freshman DTs on your roster if you run a 3-4. I try to avoid scenarios where I feel I can basically Redshirt any player I bring onto the squad. I should be forced into playing some true freshmen, if only because they’re the only depth options I have.
• If you end up having too many players 78+ overall at a position (especially if they’re on the same timeline), you should nudge them to leave in the offseason even if they didn’t demand to leave. This does scale depending on your prestige/star rating (I won’t get into all that as I think most of it is common sense), but basically if you’re 5-star Alabama, you can have a 90+ QB and an 80+ QB. But if you’re 3-star school (or below) University X, then push the 80+ overall backup QB to leave even if your returning QB is going to be a junior or senior.

Coaching Trees

• I do not put any points into the recruiting tree. I am allowed to hire assistants with a recruiting focus, but I think the recruiting skill tree is too strong by default once you know the mechanics of recruiting. You can obviously ignore this if your dynasty is ongoing and you already put points into recruiting.

Gameplay

• I won’t get into gameplay rules other than to say be aggressive with substitutions/fatigue. If your starters are the only players who are hitting the field, you should be even more strict about recruiting and roster building. If you use high fatigue sliders (90+ fatigue in the sliders) or at least use positional fatigue sliders that can be set in the menus, this is the way to go I think because then your depth actually matters — and you might have more players who aren’t great getting on the field more often.