A weak part of College Football 25 is the lack of explanations for mechanics in the game. This relates to both the gameplay and modes, and so I still see a decent amount of questions about how recruiting hours and scouting hours are calculated for their teams in College Football 25 dynasty mode. It’s actually a simply formula — if you know it.
One of the many great places out there doing the work to clear up confusion with College Football 25 is T4G Sports. They have a helpful table that explains how your preseason scouting hours and then normal week-to-week recruiting hours will be calculated. It has nothing to do with coaching trees or anything else in your control beyond the star level/prestige of your program.
| Star Level | Scouting/Preseason Hours | Weekly Recruiting Hours |
| 1 Star | 450 | 350 |
| 1.5 Stars | 500 | 400 |
| 2 Stars | 575 | 450 |
| 2.5 Stars | 625 | 500 |
| 3 Stars | 750 | 600 |
| 3.5 Stars | 875 | 700 |
| 4 Stars | 1,000 | 800 |
| 4.5 Stars | 1,125 | 900 |
| 5 Stars | 1,250 | 1,000 |
You can see the real divide between the lowest of the lows and highest of highs, and so it’s a good reminder to just win, baby. Once you’ve hit that 4-star level, you’re eating good, and I think once you’re at 4.5 stars and 5 stars I almost don’t know how to spend all my points by midway through a season.
You can succeed when recruiting well before reaching those high-star benchmarks by following some guiding principles, but I would argue some of the fun is almost sucked out of recruiting once you don’t need to make many tough decisions week to week. This is probably why I like rebuilding programs and restarting dynasty mode after 5-6 seasons these days (or leaving my head coach position for a lower-tier school).
