Boston College party crasher? Pac-12 juggernaut Nevada? Here’s what Year 2 of a College Football 25 dynasty sim looked like

The first year of my College Football 25 dynasty mode sim was a fun ride as it featured Ohio State’s Will Howard taking home the Heisman Trophy, Western Kentucky becoming a Group of Five playoff darling, and Michigan winning its second straight national championship. Now we’re onto Year 2, where things are bound to get even more chaotic.

As a quick refresher, I re-organized all 10 FBS conferences and paired them off based off regional connection. I also introduced a promotion/relegation system where the top two teams of the “lower” league will be promoted up for the next season, while the bottom two teams of the “higher” league will be booted down. With that being said, let’s jump into the 2025 campaign and pick up from where we left off.

2025 promotion/relegation

(x) denotes preseason team ranking

Atlantic Coast/Mid-Atlantic

ACC

Pitt (82) and West Virginia (84) finished with the two best records in the American in 2024, triggering a promotion to the ACC in 2025. Their preseason rankings puts them right in the middle of the pack with the rest of the league, so they should immediately fit right in.

AAC

Being sent down to the AAC are Rutgers (81) and Liberty (80), who both still managed to get to bowl eligibility the year prior. Both will enter the conference in the upper half of the rankings, so there’s a strong chance that both could be in the running to get moved back up.

Texas/Great Plains/Louisiana

Big 12

Louisiana (79) and North Texas (80) both participated in the 2024 Conference USA Championship Game and that earned them a call up to the Big 12 in 2025. They’re the lowest ranked teams in their new league, but not by a huge margin. We’ll see if they can adapt and avoid being sent back down.

Conference USA

Arkansas (84) and SMU (84) couldn’t hang in the new Big 12 and have been relegated down to CUSA. They enter as the two highest ranked teams in the league right off the bat, but will have competition at the top with Tulane, Memphis, and UTSA within two points.

Midwest

Big Ten

Western Kentucky (78) was the Group of Five’s College Football Playoff representative in 2024, pulling an upset over Arizona in the first round to advance to the quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Kent State (75) managed to get promoted despite finishing the season below .500 Both are lowest ranked teams in the Big Ten by a good margin and Kent State may be totally outclassed here. We’ll see.

MAC

Meanwhile, Iowa (83) and Northwestern (81) will be calling the MAC home in 2025 after poor showings in the Big Ten last season. Both are the highest ranked teams in the league by a considerable margin, with Toledo the next team in line at 79.

West Coast

Pac-12

Nevada (79) and Hawai’i (76) were the top two Mountain West finishers in 2024 and will be promoted to the Pac-12 for this season. Nevada pulled off a remarkable turnaround, going from back-to-back 2-10 seasons to a sudden 11-win outburst. Both will enter as the lowest ranked teams in the league with BYU and San Diego State next in line at 80.

MWC

Stanford (82) and Washington State (80) had absolutely rancid seasons in the Pac-12 last year, combining for three wins total. Stanford will enter the MWC as the highest ranked team in the league, so there’s a strong shot at them getting promoted back up.

Southeast

SEC

UAB (79) and Southern Miss (78) were the top finishers in the 2024 Sun Belt standing and will get their cracks at the SEC. Both are unsurprisingly the lowest ranked teams in the league with Georgia Tech the next team in line at 81.

Sun Belt

Mississippi State (81) and Vanderbilt (81) were the basement dwellers of the SEC in 2024, which is in line with what oddsmakers are projecting them as in real life. They will automatically enter the Sun Belt as the highest ranked teams, so we’ll see if one or both can earn their way back to the big leagues.

2025 Preseason rankings

Texas A&M is your preseason No. 1 team after falling to Michigan in the College Football Playoff national championship game. The top 10 features your usual suspects of juggernauts with the exception of No. 10 Indiana, who posted a surprise 10-win season and snuck into the playoffs last year. We’ll see if the Hoosiers can follow it up and keep the momentum going.

It will be interesting to see how No. 19 Louisiana and No. 20 Western Kentucky will fare in their very first seasons as Power Five programs. Can the Hilltoppers maintain their darling status in the Big Ten?

2025 Preseason Heisman Trophy Watch

2024 Heisman contender stats:

RB Makhi Hughes (95 OVR) – 225 carries, 1,213 yards, 11 touchdowns
WR Kevin Concepcion (95 OVR) – 30 receptions, 402 yards, 4 touchdowns
RB Jam Miller (94 OVR) – 46 carries, 184 rushing yards, 3 touchdowns
QB Avery Johnson (93 OVR) – 3,341 passing yards, 68% completion pct., 28 passing touchdowns, 11 interceptions, 135 carries, 537 rushing yards, 7 rushing touchdowns
WR Squirrel White – 50 receptions, 585 receiving yards, three touchdowns

It appears that EA defaults to the highest rated offensive skill players for the preseason Heisman list as guys like Concepcion and Miller weren’t top options for their respective offenses in 2024. Considering his dual-threat abilities, I’d wager on Johnson being the likeliest to finish the season as a Heisman finalist.

Also something to note, Ohio State DB Caleb Downs is the highest rated player this year at 98.

Alright, with the preseason particulars out of the way, let’s start the season and sim to Halloween, when the first College Football Playoff rankings are revealed.

First CFP poll of 2025

If the College Football Playoffs were decided at this point, the top four seeds would be Iowa State, Pitt, USC, and Kentucky. These aren’t in line with how the first poll actually played out, so there must be some weirdness with conference rankings that the game hasn’t accounted for just yet.

Some things of note is that Pitt is having zero issues in its first year back in the ACC. Also of note is that Boston College is getting close to a second-straight playoff appearance, which is something that no one would’ve expected in real life. Virtual Bill O’Brien is putting in work. Also, Charlotte is in line to be the G5 representative out of the American, but we’ll see if that lasts.

Late October Heisman Trophy Watch

None of the preseason Heisman contenders appear on the watch list at Halloween. Oklahoma QB Jackson Arnold is the favorite at this point, completing 73% of his passes for 2,2454 yards 31 touchdowns, eight interceptions through nine games. What’s interesting is that he’s the frontrunner despite the Sooners being 5-4 and unranked. Also, South Carolina QB LaNorris Sellers is once again in the Heisman mix after finishing as the runner-up in 2024.

Danger of getting relegated in late October

ACC – Wake Forest, Duke
Big 12 – North Texas, Kansas
Big Ten – Kent State, WKU
SEC – Southern Miss, Florida
Pac-12 – Boise State, Utah

Alright, now let’s finish out the campaign and sim to the end of conference championship weekend.

2025 Conference Championship Results

The most notable result from conference championship weekend is Nevada taking down USC in the Pac-12 title game. As you can see in the box score above, the Trojans actually took a 22-7 lead into the fourth quarter before completely falling apart, allowing the Wolf Pack to storm back and pull ahead.

The game doesn’t give play-by-play detail of how this went down, but what a remarkable come up for Nevada in this world. To go from a dead-in-the-water Mountain West program to beating USC in the Pac-12 title game is unbelievable.

Another notable result is Ohio State beating Michigan in the Big Ten title game. The conference changes and alterations must’ve thrown everything off as far as scheduling goes as these two bitter rivals didn’t even play each other in the regular season. Ohio State gets some revenge after Michigan knocked them out of the playoffs a year prior, but this may not be the last time they meet.

2025 Heisman Trophy

And your 2025 Heisman Trophy winner is dramatic drumroll…

USC quarterback Miller Moss!

These virtual Heisman Trophy voters decided to go with Moss despite USC barfing away the Pac-12 title game late. It’s hard to argue against a QB who threw for over 4,000 yards and 46 touchdowns to just four interceptions while piloting one of the sport’s blue blood programs. Finishing in third this year was the aforementioned Sellers and one has to wonder if 2026 will be the year where he finally breaks through.

Circling back to preseason Heisman Trophy favorite Makhi Hughes, he had 166 carries for 950 yards and eight touchdowns in 12 games for Tulane. A pretty good season for him, but not good enough to even be a Heisman finalist.

2024 Standings

ACC

After a disappointing 6-6 regular season in 2024, Clemson rose back to the top of the ACC pack and crushed Boston College in the ACC title game. South Carolina was once again in the mix late in the season and as expected, West Virginia and Pitt held their own in the league.

Virginia and Duke are your ACC relegation victims for 2025 and will be heading down to the AAC next season. The Blue Devils absolutely cratered with a 1-11 mark and we’ll see if they can recover in a new league next year.

AAC

Louisville ended up edging Charlotte in the AAC title game and both schools will be ACC bound. Meanwhile, both Liberty and Rutgers struggled in their first season of relegation, so they might be stuck here for awhile.

Big 12

Texas A&M has been a juggernaut in this universe and took home its second straight Big 12 title by edging Kansas State. Outside of those two teams, everyone mostly dogpiled on each other as Texas Tech was the only other program with 8+ wins.

Also, a second straight 6-6 season for Texas would be enough to get Steve Sarkisan fired in real life.

Kansas and North Texas will be relegated to Conference USA after abysmal seasons in 2025. Real disappointing that UNT couldn’t hack in during its first year in the conference. Meanwhile, Louisiana managed to do juuuussttt enough to keep itself in the Big 12 for another year.

Conference USA

After getting sent down, SMU ended up running through CUSA and will be heading back up to the Big 12 next season. They’re also bringing UTSA with them, adding yet another Texas team to the league.

Big Ten

The Big Ten was a really competitive league across the board and to no surprise, Ohio State and Michigan once again stood at the top. Still waiting for Notre Dame to join them in the top tier of the league.

Indiana and Western Kentucky are your relegation victims this year and oh my goodness, what an absolute trainwreck of a year for both teams. Indiana goes from a preseason No. 10 ranking coming off a playoff appearance to a one-win season. WKU was the Group of Five darling in 2024 but just flat out couldn’t hack it in the Big Ten. Hell, Kent State was the lowest rated team in the entire league and they somehow survived!

MAC

Middle Tennessee fell just short of a promotion the year prior, but will now get the callup for 2026 after winning the MAC. Akron is going with them after finishing second in the league standings. Meanwhile, Iowa couldn’t do just enough to get out of MAC purgatory and it will be stuck there for another year. And Northwestern finished dead last in the league, so they maybe screwed for awhile.

Pac-12

I still can’t get over Nevada walking into tis league and dominating right out the gate. They have been the biggest beneficiaries of promotion/relegation so far.

And just like that, Hawai’i’s one-year stint in the Pac-12 is over and its heading back to the Mountain West next season. Boise has also been an underwhelming addition to the Pac-12 in this sim and its heading back to the MWC as well.

Mountain West

Fresno State destroyed Wazzu in the MWC title game and both are heading up to the Pac-12 next season. Props to the Cougs for getting themselves together after a 1-11 campaign in 2024.

SEC

This was another year where Georgia was the top SEC team in the regular season before losing the SEC Championship Game. Alabama absolutely hammered the Dawgs in a 51-13 rout in Atlanta.

Southern Miss was unable to compete in its one year in the SEC and will be promptly demoted back to the Sun Belt. They will be joined by Auburn of all teams, who in real life probably would’ve fired Hugh Freeze mid-season.

Sun Belt

Troy rose back to the top of the Sun Belt, defeating Mississippi State 41-35 in the league title game. Both are getting the call up to the SEC, which is redemption for the Bulldogs after being demoted. Meanwhile, Vandy struggled in its first year in the Sun Belt and may be there for awhile.

2025 College Football Playoff final poll/bracket

Nevada is the No. 1 team heading into the College Football Playoff and will get a bye straight into the Rose Bowl. What a universe that has been concocted here, good stuff. Texas A&M, Clemson, and Ohio State are the other teams who will receive a first-round bye.

Some other things to note is that Boston College did in fact make it to its second straight playoff appearance after all. Also, we could get yet another Ohio State-Michigan rematch in the playoffs. Now let’s buckle in and see what the simulation gods have cooked up here.

2025 College Football Playoff results

Hahahahaha. The mad lads did it. Boston College is your 2025-26 national champion after taking down Georgia in a double overtime thriller in the title game. How is BC pulling this off? Well, apparently QB Thomas Castellanos is superman in this world. Both years of the sim, he’s thrown for 4300+ yards with at least 43 touchdowns in both campaigns. Salute to BC, unexpected playoff crasher.

Another thing that stands out is Ohio State once again getting tossed out of the playoff by Michigan. Virtual Ryan Day probably could’ve just stayed in Miami after the Orange Bowl. He’s not allowed back in Columbus.