Coaching Trees - An Opinionated Tier List and Guide

[ExpedientFalcon]

Disclaimer

The content of this guide is all based on my personal opinion and knowledge of the game. Constructive feedback is welcome, but please remember to be respectful in the comments.


Introduction

Coaching abilities are very powerful in CFB 25, but some are better than others. Given that it can take a while to level up your coach and unlock some of the top-tier abilities, let's talk about how we can optimize our points to make the most of our coaching tree.

I will start by saying that there is not one single best choice. The best choice depends on how you prefer to play, and you will gain a lot of abilities over the course of a few seasons. Therefore, a lot of the choice over the first few seasons is which abilities you consider most important--which ones you want first.

Also, it is important to know how your coordinators work. Your abilities stack with your coordinators. This means there is no downside to taking the same abilities that your coordinators have. However, in some cases it can be optimal to instead choose abilities that your coordinators do not have. This is especially important with recruiting, which we will touch on more in a bit.




Positional Value

Several of the trees contain upgrades that apply to different player positions. When choosing between these upgrades, it is best to keep in mind that some positions are more valuable than others. We will rank them into the following tiers, with Tier 1 being the most valuable:

Tier 1: QB
Tier 2: WR, CB
Tier 3: EDGE, OT
Tier 4: S
Tier 5: LB, IDL, G
Tier 6: C, TE, HB, K
Tier 7: P, FB

These tiers are also useful when considering things such as recruiting, i.e. which positions we want to prioritize targeting first with our recruiting hours, as well as in Madden when we are drafting or trading.




Which tree to start with?

When you create a coach, you get to choose from either the Recruiter, Motivator, or Tactician tree. You can unlock the other two of these at any time for 10 points (which is the amount you gain for each coaching level up), but it can still be beneficial to get your first few points into one tree early in your first season.

Some schools have weaker pipelines and will struggle with recruiting. For these schools, it can be helpful to take the Recruiter archetype.

In other cases, your school may have very strong pipelines and/or coordinators who have developed their recruiting trees. In these cases, one of the other trees will be more useful to start with. Of the two remaining, they are both good choices. Motivator tends to be the stronger of the two, however, as it will develop your players long-term.

In the end, you will very likely end up taking two or more of the basic trees, so this is only a matter of which one we prioritize first.




Basic Trees

Recruiter - B



You do not need the Recruiter tree to get solid prospects. However, it can be helpful if your school has weak pipelines or if you are frequently in recruiting battles with other schools. The scouting bonuses can also be very helpful at identifying gems and busts during preseason scouting.

This guide will not go in depth into recruiting. There is another guide for that here.

The key items here are the first two levels of each skill.

Less time to fully scout means you can discover each prospect's gem in 30 hours instead of 50, which means you can scout more prospects fully in the preseason. This can even get down to 20 hours if your coordinators also have it.

Bigger impacts from recruiting actions gives you an advantage over teams at the same pipeline tier as yours. Pipelines matter more, but this is still nice to have.

Increasing your available hours for a recruit by 10 is completely worthless. Your total hours are limited, so you're going to be Sending the House on as many players as you can at a time. Using 60 hours on one player means you can't Send the House on another player.

Increased starting interest is also not useful. If you're playing with house rules where you can only recruit players who have an interest in your school, this can be useful for some schools, but Send the House for 1 week will very quickly get you from no interest to top 8 without a problem.

Recommendation:
- If you're a strong recruiting school, put 1 point into the most important positions for the improved scouting.
- If you're a weak recruiting school, put 2 points into those positions. These 2nd tier skills can also be more valuable in an online league, where you have more competitive users battling you for prospects.




Motivator - A-



Of the three starting trees, this is the best one for developing your players. The key here is the off-season training boosts.

The bonus XP when players are drafted is completely worthless for 80% of schools, but very strong for the schools which are consistently in the top 25.

The two bonuses for keeping players "hot" are nice, but not overly exciting. They are not the reason we take this tree.

The tier 3 bonus, the off-season training boost, is the entire reason we take this tree. Off-season training is a massive part of player development in this game, so making off-season training even stronger is going to go a long way for our players.

Recommendation: Take 3 points in the positions you care about.




Tactician - B-



This tree is focused around giving your players boosts to their ratings during a game. It's an all-around good tree which can take an average team to good, or a good team to great. The reasons it is not rated higher are because getting your players to level up is simply stronger, and many of the best bonuses are in tier 4, which means spending a lot of points.

The bonuses for each position group are different, but they all have the same general pattern which is that the strongest bonuses are in the higher tiers, so you're going to need to spend 20 points in a position to really unlock it.

There is an exception however. The Cross Training skills are completely useless. You should never take them, they are a waste of points. If you want to move a player, switch them during the offseason so they'll actually develop at the new position.

Recommendation: Prioritize the positions you care about the most. Take as many points as you feel are helpful. Many times, this will be a tree that you fill out once you've taken the points you care about in Motivator, but haven't unlocked any advanced trees yet.




Advanced Trees

There are also trees that can be unlocked by spending points in other trees and completing special criteria, such as winning a number of rivalry games or getting players drafted. Some of these are powerful, and some of them are not.




Master Motivator - B



This tree also has a quite strong ability in tier 3, which is to increase all XP gains at a position. The downside here is that the skills are now 8 points each instead of 5. This cost is why this tree ranks lower than its predecessor, despite being quite strong.

Recommendation: Rank 3 in positions you care about, but if you've unlocked Architect, prioritize that tree over this one (we will discuss why soon).




Elite Recruiter - C+



These abilities are not bad, in fact the bonuses from levels 1-3 can be quite nice to have, but if you've taken enough points in Recruiter to unlock this tree, you likely aren't having any problems with recruiting. That's why there are better trees to invest our limited number of points into.

Recommendation: Skip, unless you're really struggling with recruiting still. As with Recruiter, can be more useful in online leagues.




Scheme Guru - C+






This tree has four different sets of skills, which are mirrored for offense and defense. Although these are each nice to have, they are also expensive, and some of them are not super impactful.

Recommendation: The best points if you'd like to invest in this tree are 3 points in Pass Game Offense, 3 points in Pass Game Defense, and 4 points in Ground & Pound Defense. This gives you better catching, better knockouts, and better run block shedding.




Architect - S+



This is the best tree in the game, and it's not even close. For 16 points in each position, you get additional XP for in-game goals, and the really big item, a chance to increase a random skill cap when they level up. And players level up frequently, especially with the increased XP they'll be getting. Skill caps are the number one difference maker in your upperclassmen, and can be the difference between them stagnating at an 80 ovr, or making it into the 90s.

Recommendation: Take tier 2 in every position, except K/P.




Strategist - F



This tree is all about boosting visits for recruits. Except you don't want to be relying on visits to get your recruits to commit. Visits are a last resort if you're in a close recruiting battle, and even then, they don't guarantee that you win the recruit. Pipelines and hard sells are much more important. The tier 4 Mind Reader trait can be useful, but being that it's in tier 4, it's way too expensive to consider taking.

Recommendation: Skip. This tree is never worth it.




Talent Developer - B-



This tree has some good skills, but they're in tier 3 and 4, which means a lot of investment to take advantage of them. The boost for transfers and interest are so-so, we really just care about the XP boosts.

Recommendation: If you don't have any other trees you want to spend points in, get 3-4 points in positions you care about here. Tier 3 is probably more valuable than tier 4 if you're a highly rated school, because you can develop your freshmen on the bench while your 90 ovr seniors start.




Program Builder

These last two trees are difficult to unlock, but have special bonuses that can't be found elsewhere. Each of their skills has different bonuses that are shared across the entire team, not unique to a position.



Stability Improvements - F

If you've played well enough to unlock this tree, then you don't need more contract stability.

Recommendation: Skip.






Set the Tone - D

HFA is usually not going to be a deal breaker in games. There are better options to spend your points on.

Recommendation: Skip.






Roster Retention - C+

This tree can be helpful in getting an extra year out of your top rated players if you're a highly rated school that frequently has juniors declare for the draft.

Recommendation: Take one point if you have multiple juniors declaring for the draft every year. Otherwise, skip.






High Integrity - F

If you unlocked this tree, you're probably not having an issue with players transferring out.

Recommendation: Skip.






Faster Progression - C

Important to note that this tree grants Coach XP, not player XP. That being said, it can be useful to help you max out your coach level faster, but you may already be close to the level cap of 50 at this point. The tier 3 skill looks enticing, but you've already spent most of your points by the time you unlock this tree, so it's a bait.

Recommendation: Take 1 point if you're not closing in on the level cap already.






Relationship Builder - A+

This is an excellent tree for securing more recruits in your program. Pipelines are the biggest factor in recruit interest. You get a total of 12 pipeline levels from this set of skills. That is massive.

Recommendation: Take all 3 tiers.






Strong Roots - C-

Yes, I know I just said pipelines are massively important. But the last tree boosted 12 pipelines. This tree boosts 1, making it significantly less valuable.

Recommendation: Take 1 point if you have extra points to spend, but don't prioritize it over other skills.




CEO

This is the top tree that you unlock by winning two Nattys. The hardest tree to unlock, it costs 30 points to unlock, and each point in it costs 18 points.






Delay Sunday - D+

Recommendation: If you have juniors projected to go in the 1st round every year, this can be worth it to get an extra year out of them. Otherwise, skip.






Second Chance Keeper - D-

As mentioned earlier, you shouldn't be having much issue with players transferring out if you've won two Nattys.

Recommendation: Skip.






Home Away From Home - C-

Not a super impactful bonus. Can be nice, but not really worth 18 points.

Recommendation: Skip.






Hot Seat Chiller - F

You're probably not going to be fired if you managed to unlock this tree.

Recommendation: Skip.






Gasoline - D

The benefits from players being Hot is not really that big. This is not worth 18 points.

Recommendation: Skip.






Portal Preview - F

This is useless information. It's not even the players who are guaranteed to transfer, it's only At Risk ones.

Recommendation: Skip.






Dream School - F

I'm assuming this increases the chance of this happening, since all schools have a chance of an instant commit when offering a scholarship to a prospect where you're their #1 interest. However, instant commits are a nice bonus, but they are not what you should be relying on for your recruiting, and you should not be delaying scholarship offers until your recruits are at top interest, as mentioned in the recruiting guide.

Recommendation: Skip.






Bundle Discount - F

You've already spent points in everything by the time you unlock this, so discounts on other abilities are useless.

Recommendation: Skip.






Senior Superlatives - S+

We talked about how big of a deal skill caps are. This is the best single ability in the game, and we are willing to spend 48 points just for this one.

Recommendation: Take it as soon as you unlock the CEO tree.


Summary: Is there an ideal skill tree?

Partially. There are some skills that seem to clearly be stronger than others. Let's see what it looks like if we prioritize those:

Motivator: 2 positions to tier 3 (to unlock Architect)
Tactician: Any 5 upgrades (to unlock Architect)
Architect: Tier 2 in all positions except K/P
Program Builder: Tier 3 in Relationship Builder
CEO: Senior Superlatives

Assuming we start with either Motivator or Tactician, this is a total of 286 points, meaning we can achieve it by level 30 assuming we have unlocked the CEO tree by that point. That means we have 20 levels worth of leeway to spend as we please, and still get all of the top-tier skills.

[jello1717]

Quote: Originally Posted by ExpedientFalcon

Positional Value Several of the trees contain upgrades that apply to different player positions. When choosing between these upgrades, it is best to keep in mind that some positions are more valuable than others. We will rank them into the following tiers, with Tier 1 being the most valuable: Tier 1: QB Tier 2: WR, CB Tier 3: EDGE, OT Tier 4: S Tier 5: LB, IDL, G Tier 6: C, TE, HB, K Tier 7: P, FB

It’s always interesting to see how different people’s priorities are. With positional tiers, mine are nearly opposite from your. For me, I rank them like this in terms of importance/which coaching skills I get first.

Tier 1: OL
Tier 2: RB, DL (if running a 4x defense), LB (if running a 3-4)
Tier 3: DB
Tier 4: WR, TE, LB (if running a 4-3)
Tier 5: QB, DL (if running a 3x defense)
Tier 6: LB (if running 425)
Tier 7: P, K

[JoZilla55]

I'm assuming your rankings and advice is based on playing in an offline dynasty? Because all of the recruiting abilities become much more important when recruiting vs other users. Nice post though. Lots of good insight

[moTIGS]

The abilities that grant additional coach xp might seem terrible because once you can unlock them, you're probably already a high level. But the point of those abilities isn't to max out *your own* coach more quickly. The point is about your coordinators.

Good coordinators can be hugely useful. If you're stuck hiring a new coordinator who's like level 18 with few abilities unlocked but you have abilities to earn coach xp faster, they'll level up faster. The skill won't provide immediate benefit, but for a long-term dynasty save, it can be pretty useful.

[sherrane]

Quote: Originally Posted by ExpedientFalcon

Strategist - F This tree is all about boosting visits for recruits. Except you don't want to be relying on visits to get your recruits to commit. Visits are a last resort if you're in a close recruiting battle, and even then, they don't guarantee that you win the recruit. Pipelines and hard sells are much more important. The tier 4 Mind Reader trait can be useful, but being that it's in tier 4, it's way too expensive to consider taking. Recommendation: Skip. This tree is never worth it.

I have just started with this. I am intrigued by the Mind Reader because Development Traits have some impact on the game. If I have two QBs that I rate closely on my recruiting board and one is a Star or Elite and the other is Normal I will know who I am trying to get. In fact, from what I've seen (and I am not claiming expertise) my #2 QB would become my #1 if he has a Star and the other a Normal. I agree with you on the first three tiers that they are not worth spending 8 coins on. But if the "increased chance" is a 5% increase, I would agree it is too expensive and not worth my time.

[ChaseB]

Good stuff.

[iverson3]

Thank you great stuff. Curious about motivator. Saw a post on Reddit where someone did tests and found that the offseason training boost is worthless. In my experience I kinda agree too. Anyone else?

https://www.reddit.com/r/NCAAFBseries/s/ERUXvkh3y2

[fn1224]

Quote: Originally Posted by ExpedientFalcon

Disclaimer The content of this guide is all based on my personal opinion and knowledge of the game. Constructive feedback is welcome, but please remember to be respectful in the comments.

Great post. Have you tested Architect? I saw on Reddit that one barely makes a difference as well, like one cap unlocked on average per player.