EA Sports College Football is back with its second title since restarting the franchise and College Football 26 will be available on Thursday, July 10. Like many people around the country, I played CFB25, saw the reveal trailer for the new game, and have some thoughts. Before jumping into my thoughts on the reveal trailer and EA’s accompanying blog post, let’s talk about CFB25 because that’s where my subjectivity is anchored.
For last year’s game, I provided three articles related to the game: a wishlist article before the trailer dropped, a first impression review after a week of gameplay, and a final review in late 2024. To recap, I gave College Football 25 a 6.5 out of 10 rating. Overall, I thought the presentation in the game was good and the visuals were excellent, but the lack of depth and some glaring gameplay issues held the game back from a higher score. You can read those three posts if you want, but I’ll be mentioning some of the larger issues down below. With that out of the way, here’s the trailer for College Football 26.
First Reactions to the Trailer
My immediate thought when watching the trailer is that they have focused even more on presentation, which was already a positive. I’m not sure how much that takes away from other aspects that need attention, but I acknowledge that first impressions matter quite a bit when people decide whether to purchase anything. I couldn’t help but notice in the first 10 seconds that Clemson is shown running off the bus in full game gear, but maybe they’ll fix that before the game launches. It’s not really a sticking point, just a funny oddity.
There was a lot of clamoring to bring in the high school aspect of the Road to Glory (RTG) mode and they’ve added that with a modern recruiting angle of including hats when committing. While that’s nice, I found that RTG had low replayability because the playcalling rarely allowed you to see action. I’m not disappointed in adding the high school part, but would like to see if RTG has improved. After all, it isn’t much of a Road to Glory if I’m riding the bench or if my role as a powerback at Air Force’s offense turns into Mike Leach’s Air Raid scheme and I’m suddenly forced to play as a wide receiver out of the backfield.
One of the aspects I really wanted to see incorporated into CFB26 was dynamic lighting. This wasn’t explicitly stated in the trailer or the blog post, but the fact that they can change the colors for entrances makes me think we’ll see it. Some have outright said it will be in the game, but there has been no official confirmation from EA Sports on this feature. I’m hoping that there’s also dynamic weather that changes throughout the game. It would be fun to play in monsoon or blizzard conditions early in the game, get a respite in the middle, and then have a deluge in the fourth quarter.
Welcome to College Football 26 Blog Post Thoughts
EA Sports dropped a blog post at the same time as the trailer to provide additional information. EA didn’t go into a deep dive on any of those topics, but will have multiple posts later this summer that delve into some of the new and updated aspects of CFB26. I’ll show a list of the main points below, but feel free to click the link for more context.
- Dynamic subs
- 2,800+ new plays added
- New archetype attributes plus 10 new archetypes in Road To Glory mode
- 300 real-world coaches added
- Defense stunts, twists, and custom zones
- Improved blocking and coverage logic
- Fully customizable Wear & Tear system that allows you to use dynamic subs strategically
- Improved coverage and blocking
- Upgraded Physics Based Tackling System
- Enhanced Stadium Pulse effects
- Stadium-specific music and chants
- Fight songs (and no more drumline music)
- Dynamic commentary that incorporates previous game performances
- Trophy Room
- Online Dynasty cross-play
- Formation Subs
- Protected Opponents in Dynasty mode
- Ultimate Team, Road to the College Football Playoff, and Team Builder return
Personally, I don’t care that coaches are included this year. I know some people are probably stoked so they can dunk on their most hated coach, but it doesn’t do anything for me. Cross-play is something else I didn’t think about last year while writing the review, however, I’m glad to see them include it for others who actually play online dynasty. The “upgraded physics based tackling system” is pretty vague and basically sounds like a buzz phrase to entice people. We’ll see what “upgraded physics based tackling” really means after the game launches.
From a gameplay perspective, I’m curious about the changes made to blocking, coverage, and the Wear & Tear system. The blocking in CFB25 was not great, and that was despite multiple attempts at changes throughout the lifecycle. I didn’t find coverage to be a major issue, except that defenders could make seemingly inhuman reactions in pass coverage. That falls under a larger issue of the AI/simulation logic, which was overall atrocious in CFB25. The scripting in the final two minutes of each half, in which the opposing offense would turn into the 2019 LSU Tigers, needs to be toned down.
One of the things I mentioned in the CFB25 review was that I didn’t have a strong opinion on Wear & Tear. I would have been okay with a setting that allows me to determine the strength of W&T (i.e. 50% of the normal setting) or the ability to sit players for a series or quarter. It sounds like we may be getting the latter option (maybe both?). The inclusion of formation substitutions will also help here, along with the ability to have dynamic subs. I’m curious to see how this plays out during the game and how it will impact you as the season goes on. This could be one area that allows for legitimate strategy throughout the season to mitigate excessive wear & tear, and I like the idea in concept. Let’s see how it plays out in the game and how the simulation logic is handled.
One of my biggest gripes about CFB25 was the announcer lines. I have numerous examples when the announcers had delayed lines, even more delayed lines, not factoring in penalties, lacking excitement for big wins, making sweeping judgments after a single play, or just straight up being wrong. This was one of the biggest immersion breakers in last year’s game. It sounds like EA made some changes for CFB26, but as always, I want to see if they overhauled the logic or just put a band-aid on it.
Off the field, having fight songs instead of EA’s recreation of Drumline is a huge step up, assuming EA has a full complement of fight songs. Since EA is using stadium-specific music in CFB26, I wonder if people can have a soundtrack playlist in the menus ala NCAA Football 06? The trophy room being added is great, but what about historical stat tracking? There’s also no mention of Mascot mode (sigh) and it doesn’t look like FCS teams are coming anytime soon (this feels like a year five game add-on). I would also like to have the ability to customize the Playoffs, but that may create more coding issues and we all saw how custom conferences messed up CFB25 at the start. Finally, I’d be in favor of having a set of in-game challenges, but that places me in a very small group of people.
Overall Thoughts
I was critical of CFB25, mainly due to the lack of depth in the various game modes, and really wanted to see what they’d do this year. Based on what I’ve seen in the trailer and read from EA’s CFB26 welcome post, it looks like things are trending in the right direction for year two. Now for the usual caveat: this was a trailer, designed to get the hype train going, so I’m taking a more… cautious view. It does sound like EA listened to the feedback from CFB25 and they’ve incorporated quite a bit of the features I wanted to see for CFB26. Having said that, I need to see more information in the deep dive videos and posts later this summer.
At the end of the College Football 25 review, I said “As for whether I will buy CFB26, the answer is leaning towards no because this feels like a game focused on surface-level presentation.” Has that changed? Yup. I’m leaning towards purchasing CFB26, but I need to see those deep dives before deciding. One thing’s for sure, I won’t be pre-ordering College Football 26 because EA has burned the consumers too many times in other video game franchises.
Photo Credit to EA Sports