EA Sports College Football returns with its third installment of the rebooted franchise, with College Football 27 set to drop on Thursday, July 9 (or July 2 if you buy Early Access). This year’s edition will be available on PC for the first time, along with the usual availability on PlayStation and Xbox. EA is tying in the new Madden game, with an MVP+ Membership Bundle that offers 7-day Early Access, but is only available for the console versions. The official reveal trailer is provided below, while the deep dives are linked here.
CFB25 and CFB26 Thoughts
In 2024, I was hyped to have a college football video game back after a decade-long absence. I posted three separate articles: 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.
For CFB26, I was on the fence about buying the game after the slightly positive review I had for CFB25. I provided some impressions on the reveal trailer at the end of May, followed by deep dive impressions in June. I ended up declaring I would buy the game, which I did… but I didn’t really play the game that much. Noticeably absent from this website are a first impressions review and a final review of the game. Honestly, I wasn’t really feeling it after a handful of games. It just felt… worse. I think part of why I didn’t like it was that the changes were very incremental. What I do remember from the start of CFB26 was the blocking being worse than CFB25 and running the ball not being as fluid.
I have played CFB26 quite a bit recently and I have to say it’s still doesn’t feel like much of an upgrade from CFB25. The dynamic lighting is good, as is the presentation, but several areas are lacking. The commentary is still rough, with some sound bites being delayed or referencing previous drives. The blocking isn’t great unless I adjust the sliders quite a bit more than CFB25. The “physics-based” tackling needs work, as I often see pre-scripted animations that defy the laws of physics. Road to Glory mode still felt unpolished when I played it. I started as a running back, which was the easiest path for me to become a starter. However, breaking into the starting lineup for some of the other positions isn’t as easy. In fairness, maybe I’m just not good at those positions, and that’s why I don’t get much playing time.
For Dynasty mode, I was taken aback by how little early season wins against ranked opponents matter. I changed my schedule to face top 10 teams: Alabama, Georgia, and Texas. I defeated all three and still wasn’t ranked until I went 5-0. I guess that close win against Michigan State was the final data point needed to finally put me in the top 25. I am also still not completely sold on recruiting in Dynasty mode. It feels like Oregon and Ohio State ended up getting nearly all my target recruits. The end of half rubberbanding was still present in CFB26, but not nearly as bad as in CFB25. Replacing that issue was the non-stop injury timeouts in the final two minutes for the CPU in CFB26. Even outside of the final two minutes, I thought the number of injury timeouts was obnoxious.
An aspect of presentation that needs work is the player/coach and fan models. The fans look like zombies and the players and coaches don’t resemble their actual likenesses. I also noticed that late-season games for Wisconsin still showed fans wearing short sleeves when it was cold out. Overall, it felt like a very incremental update to CFB25, and I would give CFB26 a 6.5 out of 10 rating.
Some Good Things About CFB27
Dynamic weather is finally in the game. I was harping about this exclusion in CFB25 because older games made by EA studios did have this feature. It’s still inexcusable that it was included in either of the first two installments, but I suppose better late than never on this one. Dynamic weather can change play-to-play, and will be visually noticeable on the field and the jerseys.
Also appearing in CFB27 for the first time since the franchise reboot is mascot mode, or mascot mashup, as EA Sports calls it now. I think this should have been in CFB25, but I also understand it’s a niche mode, so I’m not as bothered that it took until the third year. Players will have 10 mascots already unlocked at launch, but will have to play and progress to unlock the remaining mascots. While most people will not like the idea of having to “grind” for unlocks, this is actually something I think adds value to the game. Most importantly, the mascot mashup mode isn’t a core part of the game, so it doesn’t impact the most-played portion. However… there’s a pay-to-unlock aspect I don’t particularly care for where you can unlock all mascots by purchasing the MVP+ Membership. That said, it doesn’t appear to be pay-to-win and you can play offline.
It looks like Dynasty Mode and Road to Glory have more depth this year. I discuss this more in the “Good or Bad” section, but there are some good parts. Teambuilder will allow more customization, including the ability to make changes during your team’s offseason. That’s fantastic, especially with some of the athletic director’s expectation, NIL, and Dynasty points limitations for smaller programs. There’s also more historical data added for schools, which is also a nice touch.
Some Bad Things About CFB27
The deep dive on gameplay talks about more control up front in the trenches. I didn’t play CFB26 much, but I played enough to know that the blocking wasn’t much better than CFB25, which was a huge gripe of mine. This is an area where I would need to see significant changes to have it finally removed from my areas of improvement section.
I would like to see FCS teams added, but I have a sneaking suspicion that will ultimately happen as a purchasable add-on in the coming years. I’d also like to have the ability to customize the College Football Playoff bracket. One reason why this might not be possible is that it could break the logic currently in place, but we could be given settings to help set the logic (i.e., number of teams, number of AQs, etc.).
I personally do not like the cross-selling with Madden. Look, I get it. Madden is an EA game and it’s natural to want to have the player base playing both games. For me, Madden has become a stale franchise, and it actively being marketed alongside CFB27 makes me like the CFB game less. College football and the NFL are different and these games should be treated as such. I know EA owns the licenses to both, but it’s not hard to see some of the same stale thinking seep into the College Football franchise. This is probably an extreme position to hold, but I don’t want this franchise to turn into another Madden.
Possibly Good or Bad in CFB27
Dynasty mode gets a lot of changes, but I don’t know if they can be classified as improvements or downgrades yet. Expectations will be part of the mode to provide more depth, but it will vary depending on which program you choose. Dynasty points are how you will build the program, or “blueprint.” The points will be spent throughout the season and reset each year. There’s also an in-depth NIL system, recruit flipping, hiring support staff, facilities and equipment, an updated coaching carousel, updated league history for teams, and a more interactive teambuilder. The increased depth is great, but I can see the management side being too overwhelming or boring for some players. Here’s a good rundown of the dynasty mode in CFB27 that talks more about the good and bad of dynasty mode.
The presentation deep dive noted that Joel Klatt will be part of the broadcast team in CFB27, and Kirk Herbstreit will not be in the game. I don’t think Herbstreit was the problem as much as the commentary just isn’t as good as it can be. The lines feel stale regardless of who is calling the game. The deep dive mentions improvements to the commentary specific to how your game unfolds, but we’ll have to wait and see if anything changes.
Although I’m not much of a PC player, CFB27 will be available for PC folks. I have it as possibly good or bad because I don’t know how it will actually play on PC. Will it have more bugs? Will there be issues on PC that aren’t prevalent on consoles? How will EA treat the numerous mods that will be created for CFB27? What will support be like? I do think having the game available for PC is good, but I also don’t want to see the player base have to deal with more issues that could lead EA to not offer it again.
Unacceptable Aspects of CFB27
The one truly atrocious aspect of CFB27 is the idea of putting the “Rainmaker” feature from the dynasty mode in the MVP+ Membership, which costs $150. The catch is that players have to buy the membership before July 1, 2026, in order to use the Rainmaker feature. There’s also the Visionary archetype, which is only available to people who pre-order the bundle, Madden, or create a coach in Franchise Mode with Madden. It’s not hard to see EA using this strategy in the future to paywall additional parts of dynasty mode until we have to have 10-15 subscriptions just to unlock everything in a single mode.
Will I Buy CFB27?
In retrospect, I should have waited to buy CFB26 when it went on sale instead of at launch. In my final review of CFB25, I even said: “It might be wiser to return with the release of CFB27 once the solid foundation actually has more depth.” My experience with CFB26 confirmed my original thinking. As for CFB27, I have a personal policy to never pre-order a video game because too many studios have had substandard launches, EA in particular. Will I buy it? Yes, at some point. I am more excited about CFB27 than I was about CFB26, but that’s mostly because of the Mascot Mashup. I am looking forward to playing CFB27… at some point.
Photo Credit to EA Sports