How Do You "Run" Your Dynasty?

[TheSteelDad]

Apologies if there's already a thread out there about this... I've been curious about how you run your offline dynasty. For example, my standard OP is to be a coordinator at a small school, typically non-power conference. I will then evaluate the opportunities to become a HC and usually will only accept jobs at mid-level schools. Then I'll eventually ascend to a Power 4 school as an HC.

I'm getting kind of bored with this approach and wondered if you guys had any other methods.

[Vadiplomat04]

Re: How Do You "Run" Your Dynasty?

One thing you can try is, be a head coach of a small school and put recruiting restrictions on yourself. So for me, I've been at JMU for 10 years now, and I have a restriction where I can not recruit more then 10 players outside of the DMV area. This makes it where you have to be good at developing talent versus just recruiting the best players.

Also another thing you can do is constant conference realignment. For my JMU dynasty, I moved JMU from the Sun Belt to the ACC. Then I created an ACC conference (with real schools and teambuilder schools) with just schools from the DMV area. The conference started off with 12 team, then expanded to 18 teams as I added in schools from WV, PA, and NC. Doing this will allow you to not become dominate and constantly have a challenge to your team as you can keep bring in good teams into your conference and kick off the bad teams. I do a conference rotation every 4 years. If a team goes below .500 during that time or constantly have bad recruiting classes, I kick them out. I added in the schools that fit my criteria over those 4 years.

One thing I would like to see for CFB 26 is the ability to create custom conferences with customer conference logos and locations for championship games. I hate having a select few stadiums to do conference championship games at. Allow me to choose any stadium in the game to do my championship game at.

[iliveaboveasubway]

Re: How Do You "Run" Your Dynasty?

Apologies if there's already a thread out there about this... I've been curious about how you run your offline dynasty. For example, my standard OP is to be a coordinator at a small school, typically non-power conference. I will then evaluate the opportunities to become a HC and usually will only accept jobs at mid-level schools. Then I'll eventually ascend to a Power 4 school as an HC.

I'm getting kind of bored with this approach and wondered if you guys had any other methods.

You can try only accepting new jobs after Milestones. Like a big bowl win. Winning your conference for the first time. Or if you are an OC or DC, maybe you lead the league in something and a team who was **** at what you lead in comes-a-callin'

[adembroski]

Re: How Do You "Run" Your Dynasty?

I don't anymore! Because 4 seasons in, conferences stopped scheduling conference games entirely and all the Conference Rules options are greyed out.



But for real, just throwing that out there in case someone has a fix.

I take a coordinator position with a small school and work my way up. I leave auto-recruiting on until I feel like I've earned some control there as well.

[sherrane]

Re: How Do You "Run" Your Dynasty?

Apologies if there's already a thread out there about this... I've been curious about how you run your offline dynasty. For example, my standard OP is to be a coordinator at a small school, typically non-power conference. I will then evaluate the opportunities to become a HC and usually will only accept jobs at mid-level schools. Then I'll eventually ascend to a Power 4 school as an HC.

I'm getting kind of bored with this approach and wondered if you guys had any other methods.

The way you play was my typical dynasty backstory in 14 and earlier. I initially tried this twice in 25 and was highly disappointed because or the lack of job offers in 25. It seemed to be redundant as I could always get Virginia and a G5 HC gig early and opportunities would dry up for a few years shortly afterward. It inspired a "get out when the getting is good" mentality. Perhaps that reflects real life, but it isn't the way I want to play.



I just ran a 20-year dynasty where I started and maintained my HC job at Kennesaw State. I also ran Relegation system where every year the conference champions move up to the next conference and the worst teams move down. I got Kennesaw to the top for several years and maxed out recruiting, which made recruiting far too early.


I am now in my 1st year as the OC of Georgia. I wanted to see how the Bundle Discount skill worked and I have upgraded my defensive recruiting and tactician skills on the cheap to help me move on to a new job. I want to stay at UGA for a couple of years and I hope the game offers me a HC at a C-USA school (lowest ranked conference) like Sam Houston, Jacksonville State, or New Mexico State (one of my favorite starting places in the older games, which was removed by default by Revamped). I'm still a few weeks away from Conference Championship Week, so I don't know how well the job offers have been fixed, if at all.


If the initial job offers dry up as they have in previous attempts, I will probably start as a HC of one of the teams mentioned in the previous paragraph. I will look to spread my skill purchases in a different direction. Recruiting at Kennesaw State got far too easy after maxing the skill. I would have the #1 class with 20 signees, all 4 and 5 start players excluding kickers while other schools trail me with 32+ signees.


So far, starting at KSU was my best dynasty experience. I will start over with a C-USA HC job if the Georgia OC career path feels like it fizzles.

[TheSteelDad]

Re: How Do You "Run" Your Dynasty?

I don't anymore! Because 4 seasons in, conferences stopped scheduling conference games entirely and all the Conference Rules options are greyed out.



But for real, just throwing that out there in case someone has a fix.

I take a coordinator position with a small school and work my way up. I leave auto-recruiting on until I feel like I've earned some control there as well.

The auto-recruiting thing is something I've been curious about doing. Or at the very least really restricting where and who I recruit as was also suggested in the thread.

[TheSteelDad]

Re: How Do You "Run" Your Dynasty?

The way you play was my typical dynasty backstory in 14 and earlier. I initially tried this twice in 25 and was highly disappointed because or the lack of job offers in 25. It seemed to be redundant as I could always get Virginia and a G5 HC gig early and opportunities would dry up for a few years shortly afterward. It inspired a "get out when the getting is good" mentality. Perhaps that reflects real life, but it isn't the way I want to play.



I just ran a 20-year dynasty where I started and maintained my HC job at Kennesaw State. I also ran Relegation system where every year the conference champions move up to the next conference and the worst teams move down. I got Kennesaw to the top for several years and maxed out recruiting, which made recruiting far too early.


I am now in my 1st year as the OC of Georgia. I wanted to see how the Bundle Discount skill worked and I have upgraded my defensive recruiting and tactician skills on the cheap to help me move on to a new job. I want to stay at UGA for a couple of years and I hope the game offers me a HC at a C-USA school (lowest ranked conference) like Sam Houston, Jacksonville State, or New Mexico State (one of my favorite starting places in the older games, which was removed by default by Revamped). I'm still a few weeks away from Conference Championship Week, so I don't know how well the job offers have been fixed, if at all.


If the initial job offers dry up as they have in previous attempts, I will probably start as a HC of one of the teams mentioned in the previous paragraph. I will look to spread my skill purchases in a different direction. Recruiting at Kennesaw State got far too easy after maxing the skill. I would have the #1 class with 20 signees, all 4 and 5 start players excluding kickers while other schools trail me with 32+ signees.


So far, starting at KSU was my best dynasty experience. I will start over with a C-USA HC job if the Georgia OC career path feels like it fizzles.

It's stunning to me how quickly the offers dry up even as you become more successful. Seems like it would be just the opposite!

[TarHeelPhenom]

Re: How Do You "Run" Your Dynasty?

Honestly, I have taken the game as is this year. The only things I've done:

1) I don't manually upgrade my coaches. I auto upgrade and have it on the Slowest settings.

2) As the Head Coach, I select the recruits that I want to recruit in preseason, and then turn on Auto Recruit and let my "Assistants" recruit for the remainder of the year. I'll take recruiting back over in the offseason when the portal opens.

Outside of that, I don't hold myself to any other restrictions. I'll check out job offers and evaluate at the end of each year. I went 11-4 at ECU in the first season of my Dynasty. I got 4 HC job offers in the offseason and I left for Maryland. I'm in my second season at Maryland now and I could see myself staying a while. At the same time, should a particular job come open...

I'm out lol!

[sherrane]

Re: How Do You "Run" Your Dynasty?

Honestly, I have taken the game as is this year. The only things I've done:

1) I don't manually upgrade my coaches. I auto upgrade and have it on the Slowest settings.

2) As the Head Coach, I select the recruits that I want to recruit in preseason, and then turn on Auto Recruit and let my "Assistants" recruit for the remainder of the year. I'll take recruiting back over in the offseason when the portal opens.

Outside of that, I don't hold myself to any other restrictions. I'll check out job offers and evaluate at the end of each year. I went 11-4 at ECU in the first season of my Dynasty. I got 4 HC job offers in the offseason and I left for Maryland. I'm in my second season at Maryland now and I could see myself staying a while. At the same time, should a particular job come open...

I'm out lol!

I am curious about your second item. In previous versions turning on Auto Recruit changed your recruiting board. I assume you have verified the CPU hasn't changed your board? That might be something I'd want to try if the game respects your recruits.

[TarHeelPhenom]

Re: How Do You "Run" Your Dynasty?

I am curious about your second item. In previous versions turning on Auto Recruit changed your recruiting board. I assume you have verified the CPU hasn't changed your board? That might be something I'd want to try if the game respects your recruits.

So, each preseason, I set recruiting to manual, then I put the maximum number of recruits possible on my recruiting board(35), place each in order of importance from 1-35 so that my "assistants" will prioritize, and hand out scholarships to the one's I definitely want. Once I have my recruiting board set, I simulate to Week 0, and set recruiting to Auto. The list will stay the same even if one of the players that you are recruiting commits elsewhere. You have to manually go in and remove them. This will prevent the CPU from adding or taking away and replacing recruits on your list. So, at the end of the season, once the offseason begins, I go in and remove all guys that committed elsewhere, so that I can add guys I want from the portal/recruit pool, and I will take over recruiting myself.

I personally don't touch recruiting at all during the season. I'm focused on "coaching". So, if I lose out on guys during the season, I have to put in work in the offseason. I like doing it this way because I'm essentially stuck with who I'm stuck with. If I get a commit from a guy on my board during the season, and he had bust potential then I'm stuck with him and I'll have to just coach him up. My control comes offseason.

[TheSteelDad]

Re: How Do You "Run" Your Dynasty?

Honestly, I have taken the game as is this year. The only things I've done:

1) I don't manually upgrade my coaches. I auto upgrade and have it on the Slowest settings.

2) As the Head Coach, I select the recruits that I want to recruit in preseason, and then turn on Auto Recruit and let my "Assistants" recruit for the remainder of the year. I'll take recruiting back over in the offseason when the portal opens.

Outside of that, I don't hold myself to any other restrictions. I'll check out job offers and evaluate at the end of each year. I went 11-4 at ECU in the first season of my Dynasty. I got 4 HC job offers in the offseason and I left for Maryland. I'm in my second season at Maryland now and I could see myself staying a while. At the same time, should a particular job come open...

I'm out lol!

This is a pretty cool plan. You allow yourself some control but also turn over some too (which saves time) and let's you actually play the game!

[sherrane]

Re: How Do You "Run" Your Dynasty?

I do want to update this post as the response / offers are different than they have been in the earlier versions of this game.

I am now in my 1st year as the OC of Georgia. I wanted to see how the Bundle Discount skill worked and I have upgraded my defensive recruiting and tactician skills on the cheap to help me move on to a new job. I want to stay at UGA for a couple of years and I hope the game offers me a HC at a C-USA school (lowest ranked conference) like Sam Houston, Jacksonville State, or New Mexico State (one of my favorite starting places in the older games, which was removed by default by Revamped). I'm still a few weeks away from Conference Championship Week, so I don't know how well the job offers have been fixed, if at all.




So far, starting at KSU was my best dynasty experience. I will start over with a C-USA HC job if the Georgia OC career path feels like it fizzles.

I entered the Conference Championship Game week with Georgia being 12-0 and #2 in the nation. I signed a 1-year deal at the beginning of the dynasty, which I believe is standard for Coordinators. Before the SEC Championship Game, I was offered a 5-year extension that I signed. In the first version of 25 I was obligated to sign and the game resigned my whether I wanted it or not. In later versions, signing would stop additional offers. Neither is true any more.


After winning the SEC Championship Game, I was the #2 seed in the playoffs behind #1 Ohio State. I checked my offers and I had 2 P4 HC (BYU and Virginia) offers and OC offers from Texas Tech and Navy. I stayed at UGA and advanced to the 2nd round of the playoffs. After doing so, I received FOUR HC offers. Three were P4 teams and Toledo.

I want to stay at UGA for a couple of years and I hope the game offers me a HC at a C-USA school (lowest ranked conference) like Sam Houston, Jacksonville State, or New Mexico State

Given what I said, Toledo in the MAC is nearly the type of job that I was hoping to get. I did prefer to remain at UGA for 2 or 3 years instead of 1, but this was a satisfactory offer and I took over Toledo. I simulated the post season and unfortunately Georgia lost the National Championship Game to Clemson 29-26. I think I traded a National Championship to take the Toledo job, but I'm good.


Moving forward, this might be fixed so congrats to the EA team.

[Hooe]

Re: How Do You "Run" Your Dynasty?

But for real, just throwing that out there in case someone has a fix.

The game's scheduling algorithm doesn't cooperate well with the unusually sized super conferences (the 17-team ACC is a notable problem catalyst). So far the configuration my league has enjoyed the most luck with is:

- every conference has an even number of teams
- every conference has no more than 14 members
- every 14-team conference plays exactly 8 in-conference games
- use divisions where possible
- prefer that teams which are "protected rivals" (there is a concept in the game code where a matchup between two rivals always gets scheduled during a specific week; these protected rivals are not explicitly listed anywhere I don't think) are generally assigned to the same league (ex. Texas and Oklahoma stay paired together)

The scheduling algorithm is fragile, but if you play with it enough, you can make it work. Unfortunately in a way which doesn't mirror real life very well, but nevertheless.

[Hooe]

Re: How Do You "Run" Your Dynasty?

As to the topic: playing at Virginia, I use a house rule which aligns with the university's admission standards where I am not allowed to offer any player who has completed more than four semesters at a different school unless they are a rising redshirt senior.

This takes me out of contention for some of the better players in the transfer portal (players who enter the portal as juniors and redshirt sophomores) and forces me to place more emphasis on recruiting, talent development, and talent retention.

[adembroski]

Re: How Do You "Run" Your Dynasty?

The game's scheduling algorithm doesn't cooperate well with the unusually sized super conferences (the 17-team ACC is a notable problem catalyst). So far the configuration my league has enjoyed the most luck with is:

- every conference has an even number of teams
- every conference has no more than 14 members
- every 14-team conference plays exactly 8 in-conference games
- use divisions where possible
- prefer that teams which are "protected rivals" (there is a concept in the game code where a matchup between two rivals always gets scheduled during a specific week; these protected rivals are not explicitly listed anywhere I don't think) are generally assigned to the same league (ex. Texas and Oklahoma stay paired together)

The scheduling algorithm is fragile, but if you play with it enough, you can make it work. Unfortunately in a way which doesn't mirror real life very well, but nevertheless.

My league is 5 24 team leagues, regional. So the Pac-12 and Mountain West are a single "league" with promotion/relegation within it. Every single season was identical. 10 12 team conferences with 2 divisions and a conference championship game.

The one thing I changed was number of conference games. I lowered it to 5 (initially it was 8, my thinking was playing all of your division and half of the other), assuming it would schedule your division opponents. Just wanted to see how it'd work.

The SEC and Mountain West ceased scheduling conference games. And I couldn't turn them back on. Everything on the conference rules screen was greyed out.