What kind of Dynasty player are you? How to pick your College Football 25 team

The 11-year wait is over. You’ve displayed patience through that and the data download on your PlayStation 5 or Xbox. You’ve started playing EA Sports College Football 25, and now you’re staring at the Dynasty mode menu wondering which program to fully commit to.

You can go the easy route or take the hard road to the top. You can be a head coach or coordinator. You can take over a program with the intention to be there for the long haul or make it a quick fix. It’s all up to you.

If you’re in need of some help on determining how to pick your Dynasty squad, The Athletic is here to provide some insight into how to make the all-important decision. What type of Dynasty player are you?

Starting from scratch

There are a few programs either making the transition to the FBS this year or still shuffling through the early stages of their jump. For example, James Madison is in its third season as a FBS program and handled the transition so well that its former coach, Curt Cignetti, was hired at Indiana after posting a 19-4 record the past two seasons.

That’s the dream scenario. But life is typically harder than that for new FBS programs. So if you want to start from the ground floor and mold a program however you see fit, this could be the route to go. Jacksonville State is off to a strong start after going 9-4 in its FBS debut under Rich Rodriguez, making it less of a challenge, but Sam Houston went just 3-9 in its initial FBS campaign and Kennesaw State is making the jump as the 134th FBS team this season.

All are trying to make names for themselves in a rapidly changing Conference USA.

The impossible job

This is arguably the most rewarding path: taking a total rebuilding job (one that’s likely rated 1.5 stars or less in prestige), elevating it, making it a consistent winner and maybe even putting it in a more high-profile conference.

Think of a program like Akron, which hasn’t won more than two games since 2018, has just one bowl victory in school history and has only three bowl appearances to its name. Or a school like UMass, which hasn’t posted a winning record since it transitioned to the FBS in 2012.

A real-life example of this is what Lance Leipold is currently doing at Kansas. There are plenty of schools out there where it honestly feels impossible to win on a consistent basis. Choose one, change their fortunes and become a legend at that program.

The elevator job

You intend to win at this place, but it’s more of a springboard toward your next coaching job at a more illustrious program or in a more prestigious conference.

The best route is to choose one of the best Group of 5 schools for the upcoming season — Memphis, Liberty, Boise State and Tulane all qualify as College Football Playoff contenders — and win your conference, make an appearance or two in the CFP and put yourself on the radar for a Power 4 school looking for a hot-shot coach.

With the way the Big Ten and the SEC have separated themselves from the rest of the other leagues, taking over a mid-tier ACC or Big 12 school and winning at a good clip could make your coach more attractive for a big-time job with more resources, too. Think Mike Elko leaving Duke for Texas A&M.

Revive a wayward program

Deion Sanders is attempting to do this with Colorado right now. Whether he succeeds or not is still TBD. But the idea is there: Take a program that has had success in the past, maybe even winning a national championship or several, but has fallen on hard times.

The sport has changed a lot in the past few years, let alone the past decade or two. So the landscape is dramatically different now and new-look conferences, recruiting and resources or lack thereof have made things harder for some programs. Some of these jobs might be easier to turn around than others. But if they have the right coach, maybe the glory days won’t be as out of reach as they appear.

Nebraska has struggled for years to recapture past glory. What’s the best method to revive the Cornhuskers? Perhaps your Dynasty can unlock the secret.

The diamond in the rough

Whether it’s resources or a talented recruiting territory, these programs have strong potential. But they’ve been inconsistent and no coach has found a way to unlock their full potential in recent years.

Not to mention there are other programs in their respective conferences who have enjoyed more success despite not having access to the same resources. So the recipe to win is there; it’s a matter of finding the right chef. It could be you.

The juggernauts

To be honest, unless you’re a fan of one of these programs, these aren’t as rewarding as taking over a tough job and building it into a winner. But if you aim to dominate from kickoff of your first game and build upon a program that’s already established a successful formula, this is the choice.

The realignment challenges

The makeup of each conference is so much different than it was when the game was last released in 2013. Conference realignment has been one of the biggest storylines in the sport over the past three years, a cloud constantly hovering above the sport. This year, we’ll see what all these new conferences look like in real life: a reality that will be much more daunting for some unfortunate programs.

There are several reasons for that. For some, like Cal in the ACC, travel will be brutal. For conference doormats like Vanderbilt and Indiana, life was already hard but will get infinitely more difficult after the SEC and Big Ten added several brand-name programs. Then there the victims of realignment, Oregon State and Washington State, who are in limbo, left playing Mountain West schedules in the two-team Pac-12.

As for Florida State? The Seminoles clearly want out of the ACC, so you could always proactively place the Seminoles elsewhere. After all, grant of rights agreements aren’t a problem in the video game.

There are countless intriguing opportunities to win and do something different with some of these schools.

The recruiting challenges

College football is all about talent acquisition. The teams with the best players typically win the most. At some schools, landing the best prospects is much harder than others, whether it’s because of location, academics or conference affiliation. Some programs face an uphill battle before a recruiting cycle even begins.

Some outperform expectations, others falter. Dynasty mode recruiting is as detailed as ever. Can you land players, upgrade the talent level and in turn raise a program’s ceiling despite its inherent disadvantages?

Rise through the coordinator ranks

We’ve seen coaches jump from coordinator to head coach and make an immediate impact pretty often. Kirby Smart, Lincoln Riley and Dan Lanning are just a few recent examples. Spend a couple of seasons focusing on one side of the ball, run an elite offense or defense and raise your profile for the coaching carousel. Or you could take over a much-maligned unit that’s really struggled over the years and make it respectable, which would boost your coach’s credibility.

When you create a coach in the game, there are three types you can choose from: motivator, recruiter or tactician. So choose how you see fit. And if you fix the Iowa offense or Northwestern offense, or the USC or Colorado defense? A head coaching job undoubtedly awaits.

(Top illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photos; Brian Bahr, Todd Kirkland, Frank Jansky / Getty Images)