“You can learn a line from a win and a book from defeat.” – Paul Brown.

I am a mid-40s man with a wife, children, and job who has not played an electronic football game since 2005-2006. In my 20s I remember having long nights playing NCAA and building up dynasties while living alone and having tons of extra time. When NCAA came out this year I asked for a new Xbox and a copy of the game for my birthday. Nearly six months later I’m still playing and am on the cusp of winning a natty in my third year playing Temple on Heisman. I’ve worked my way up from Varsity difficulty and this guide is intended to help those who are playing offline dynasty mode get to the highest level of difficulty.

First, this guide is being made because a lot of content I see is based on “run the best play and use these specific hot routes to trick the computer” or some wonderful ex ballers using their knowledge to pass/read defenses. Specific “perfect” plays can always be patched or removed and not everyone has had the benefit of being coached through high school and college to read a defense and adjust. This guide is a blueprint for thinking about how to be successful at your current difficulty level and then increasing this difficulty level. Ball control mindset is outside the control of EA and can always apply to football games. It doesn’t require knowledge of ball and can be executed by those with children and jobs.

Secondly, using a ball control mindset and offense allows you to slowly expand your ability to play NCAA and allows you to get specific and isolated feedback from the game on what areas you can improve. Without a strong base of knowledge the reason why a play “worked” may not be obvious and can lead one to making errors in play selection and risk management. As you move from losing close games, to winning close games, to winning all games, to winning games with a huge cushion you are able to open up your playbook and have confidence in how certain plays function, fail, and work. Additionally, you can move “down” the ladder to a basic base set of ball control functions when you increase difficulty from Varsity to All-American and from All-American to Heisman. You will be able to take any group of players in offline dynasty and mold them in to a respectable team and build them up to a national championship level.

Finally, I think this system can work with any coaching tree in dynasty and almost any playbook. However, since we are working offline I like to start with a pro style generic offense and add plays that I like. You need a variety of running plays in both “run” and “pass” formations and the generic pro playbook has what you need.

Ball Control in the Context of NCAA 2025

“When people have success, one of two things happen. They either get really satisfied and want to keep thinking about it and talking about what they did, or the success becomes a little addictive, and it makes them want to keep having more.” – Nick Saban, regarded as the greatest college coach of all time who retired soon after it was legal for schools to pay players.

If you follow the NCAA subreddit for any amount of time you will see people complaining about the number of interceptions they throw and the lack of pass protection/run blocking from the Oline. Sometimes people will reply that this is a “skill issue” vs. those that say the coding is broken/incorrect and the game is unplayable. This solution, as you might expect from me, is to employ a ball control offensive and defensive philosophy. Ball control doesn’t require any specific players, stats, “platinum badges” or any of the attractive things that a whore would use to attract a john at night.

Ball control requires the following:

1. The ability to play NCAA 2025
2. The ability to count to six twice
3. The ability to play “Going the Distance” by Bill Conti from the Rocky soundtrack

While helpful, it is not required to have:

• The opening of Patton played before every game.
• A favorite lower ranked school.
• An openness to losing games in a controlled manner.

I’m not asking you to have a deep or sophisticated knowledge of football on either side of the ball. I don’t need you to have great joystick skills. In fact, I think these “skills” are a net negative in a ball control scheme. You don’t need any specific team with a star player or standout.

Ball control can also make up for an underdog roster or underdog player. In NCAA the overall ratings and “badges” that players have are significant in how they perform in the game. This means that a skilled player who typically uses a top G4 program like Georgia or Ohio State will have a significant adjustment when using Bowling Green or New Mexico. An unskilled or newer player using a strong school will also get confusing signals about how the game is “supposed” to work and function as the highly rated players overwhelm the opposition. You can use this strategy to keep games close with top ranked schools and be confident in selecting lower ranked schools and developing them.

Ball control is an underdog strategy in football that consists of three main points.

1. Use running plays to control the ball and keep your offense on the field.
2. Make calculated and aggressive calls when you have an edge.
3. Avoid giving up big plays on defense.

You may think that taking a high variance passing strategy is the correct outcome for an underdog. However, a passing attack with BIG YARDS is a low variance strategy because you INCREASE the number of plays and smooth out the impact of any individual play. A team with better players in key positions, like a Georgia or Ohio State, is going to want to get as many plays as possible. Football is a time-based game. In NCAA 2025 you can essentially think of each second as resource that is used during the course of a game. Using the default 5-minute quarters there are 1200 “time” buckets that each team has access to. The rules of the game dictate that after an incompletion the clock is stopped. There is an additional stoppage at the two-minute warning. In college football there is a pause after getting a first down that stops the clock for 4-5 seconds after the play ends. Team A is a passing team with great athleticism that throws the ball downfield. A successful play gains 10+ yards while a wild success is a touchdown. A failure is an incompletion and horrible outcome is a sack or a turnover. Team B is a running team. A successful play gains 3-5 yards while a wild success is a chunk play for 20+ yards. A failure is a 2-yard run and a horrible outcome is a tackle for loss (TFL) or fumble.

Now, you might think back to Texas Tech upsetting Texas and think the best way an underdog can win is by making big plays in the passing game through the Air Raid or Spread style offense. Using confusion and finding the open receiver. This requires A LOT of knowledge on the part of the player and doesn’t always give clear signals of what can be improved. Did you call a bad play, misread the presnap, or just have a lineman fail to block a DE for pressure? Did you hesitate a split second before throwing and get hit as you passed? Was it possible that you put up a 50/50 ball and just didn’t come down with it? In NCAA I would argue that the game doesn’t give you this feedback on the field and in the course of a game these signals are lost and become noise.

Ball control dynasty progression moves in a predictable manner. As player skill and the skill of your team increases you can open up the offensive playbook before finally increasing the difficulty and starting a new dynasty run. At first, you are playing intensely close games that are decided on the last drive if not the last play.

Game Management Using Ball Patrol

“You see that thing up there? …That’s a scoreboard …If they didn’t have that son-of-a-gun up there, then it wouldn’t mean anything; we could just fool around.” Bill Parcells, Patron Saint of Ball Control.

Let’s assume that each team gets the ball at the 25-yard line. It is very conceivable that Team A could run 10 plays with a mix of 7 successes and 3 failures that ends in a touchdown. Assuming each play takes 6 seconds to run and there are about 10 seconds after a play the entire drive will take 95 seconds and end with a touchdown. Each failure results in a stopped clock while each success results in a delay meaning that 95 seconds were taken off of the clock (10 plays at 6 seconds with 7 successes at 5 seconds. That means your used 7.9% of the available time to score seven points. Team B runs the ball and needs a combination of two successes and a failure to go 10 yards. This is 21 plays where the clock is running for 16 seconds each play taking up 336 seconds or 28% of the available time units. If both teams are successful the score is tied and seven minutes and 11 seconds have come off of the clock. Whoever went first will get the ball back with 2 minutes and 49 seconds remaining in the half. This is the key to the ball control strategy. If Team B is on defense you can anticipate MORE passing and drop into a zone defense to attempt to get the ball back.

Attempting to outthrow a better team as an underdog allows them more drives and chances to show their edge. The ideal underdog game is to kick the ball off, have the opponent score or stop them, drive down the field and score taking 5+ minutes, and then have them score or stop giving you the ball back before half. Being down 7 or 14 points going into the second half with the ball first isn’t a horrible place to be. However, if you had attempted to throw the ball it is very likely that you could be down three or more scores and not have any hope of catching the better team in the second half.

On a positive note you might “win” extra possessions on defense by causing a turnover or three and out. As you’ve been consistently running ball it’s possible to get up by two scores in a game. This is the time that you can start to expand your offense and find passing plays that you like. With the game on the line, a 3rd and 8 throw into a defense that is prepared for the pass is difficult and might not leave you with a lot of options. However, after running the ball over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again you’re likely seeing run blitz, eight in the box, and other defensive adjustments to try and stop you. Your running backs are tired, injury prone, and just not getting the same burst. With a little bit of a cushion you can try an option play, learn a drag route, or even take a big big shot downfield. If an very bad outcome like a pick six occurs you have control of the ball and can just go back to the run. On a longer scale of planning and executing your dynasty starting at any difficulty you will start to notice a pattern or pyramid to your skill expression in games.

• Losing/Barely Winning close games against all opponents at home and on the road.
• Winning consistently against lower level opponents at home, having struggles against similar overall opponents or lower level opponents with strong home field advantage.
• Losing against higher ranked opponents at home, having struggles against similar overall opponents with strong home field advantages.
• Being dominate against significantly lower overall opponents, being even against higher ranked opponents on the road. May not have control over all phases of the game. You should be making the playoffs/Conference Championship games.
• Almost impossible to lose a game when you get up by 10-14. Having a complete control of the clock and possessions at home or on the road. Potential struggles when behind or for extremely loud road games. You should be winning a playoff game or national title.
• Able to effectively run and pass against opponents. This is where you start gunning for Heisman awards, records, and just running through your opponents on all levels.

After the last step you’re ready to step up in difficulty and start a new dynasty at a higher level difficulty. Sure, it’s fun for a year or two to just dominate teams but if there is a higher difficultly level, or slider adjustments to make, you need to make the jump after being able to pass and run the ball against your opponents.