EA Sports College Football 26 review – They got us in the first half, not gonna lie

After the years of effort put in on College Football 25 (CFB25), the team at EA Sports was rewarded by becoming the highest-selling sports game of all time. As I said in my review last year, it was well worth the wait and the accolades. From presentation to gameplay and sports fandoms, the team worked hard to make sure CFB25 was going to succeed, and succeed it did. 

The issue comes when you now have to follow that game up. You don’t have as much time, you have even higher expectations, and because of how groundbreaking some of the aspects of CFB25 felt; you’re hoping to grow the game even beyond that. How can you do all of this in less than nine months (including testing, previews, and more)? Well, let's dig in deep to see if College Football 26 (CFB26) was a false start or a touchdown!

Graphics // Sights and Sounds

After the preview event we had in Orlando, my expectations were extremely high for the graphics, sights + sounds of gameday, and the overall presentation. Scott O’Gallagher, Christian Brandt, and the team focused on this aspect and did a great job of explaining how CFB 26 would FEEL different from CFB25. This included new gameday presentations, new looks for coaches, updated lighting effects, and more.

While playing CFB26, I really do love these updates. They make night games feel so much more realistic to each school, with bigger schools having everything from fireworks to laser light shows and more. Meanwhile, even the smaller schools have moments of perfection as the lights change from day to evening or evening to night. It kept things feeling fresher than they did last year and kept me looking around during the timeouts and in between plays. 

The weather, while being a visual element, impacts everything on the field. The accuracy can be worse, drops are more frequent, and fumbles happen more often. I really love weather-related games as they bring something fresh to the table each time. Plus, they just look so dang cool.

The crowd has also been revamped with more variety in the audience we see from game to game. There is a little bit of an uncanny valley feeling with some of these character models with smiles so big you would have thought they had a life-altering Powerball jackpot, not a running back getting a first down. While this doesn’t impact the gameplay, I’ve sat through a game at MTSU where not one student had a smile on their face the entire game, so seeing an entire student section going wild while I’m struggling to get a first down puts a damper on the vibes happening. 

On the other hand, we’ve gotten a lot more from coaches this year, with more than 300 real coaches being added to the game. On top of that, you also have the ability to fully customize your coach in Dynasty Mode. From the intensity to the stance, it’s so much more than CFB25 and lets you make a coach closer to how you’d dream of doing the job yourself. Moreover, you can customize your outfit to fit the kind of coach you’re styling yourself after. I’m a huge fan of the puffy vest and hoodie for colder weather teams. These might feel like small things, but they add up to make the game feel more immersive.

The music has been one of the best updates the team for CFB26 could have made. Last year, the biggest note I had from my partner was, “Please turn the drumline down, it’s a lot.” This year, the drumline still has its moment (as a percussionist myself, it’s much appreciated), but it’s supplemental and allows for the College Football Marching Band to play hits like Blinding Lights, Flowers, and more with their marching band flair. The other headline is songs like Enter Sandman and Mr. Brightside being added into the game for the schools that use them. It’s pretty wild playing against Michigan and all of a sudden you have thousands of fans screaming Mr. Brightside as you’re about to take a snap. The music is a major plus as both a band nerd and as a fan of college marching bands’ importance to the sport. 

Gameplay

This game runs very well overall. I mean that in both a literal and in-game sense. Running the ball feels much more fluid than last year, and passing feels much more alive. 

As you run, you’ll have better blocking from everyone on the field. Linemen and receivers seem to be doing their job much more than last year. No matter the formation, I was able to find success running the ball for much larger gains than in CFB25. The running back animations also help with them sliding past contact much more frequently than last year, especially for more experienced backs.  I haven’t had the same issues with the running back fumbling as much as I’ve seen from others I’ve seen, but that does seem to be giving people fits. 

I found it’s easy to take advantage of the AI being a bit slow in how it handles some situations. After talking to a few different friends who played football and simply watch a lot of tape, sometimes defenses are just simply out of position, and the offense can take advantage of that. However, I did feel like I was able to find many flaws in the defense, which led to huge gains or touchdowns even on the harder settings. This mostly tends to happen when the running back is lined up outside of normal running back locations. If I run a five-wide and the running back is on the outside WR slot, defenses have a rough time figuring it out. 

Passing feels much more streamlined than last year. From a newb like me using the default settings to Kurt Benkert having very specific sliders for the way he likes to pass, you can adjust these things to make them to your liking. Something I really like this year is how height impacts passing. Shorter QBs will have a harder time seeing over linemen and will require you to use passing lanes for better accuracy on throws. Meanwhile, the taller QBs can see the field better as a whole. It’s another aspect of realism in the game that adds to the experience. 

I had small issues with some players creating “mountain glitches” when they score a touchdown. Basically, their character model becomes this huge blob of grey. While it never impacted the gameplay, per se, it did alter the ability to do celebrations with some of the characters. Strangely enough, it wasn’t with all players. The majority of the issues came from deep balls to wide receivers.

**I would also say to be very careful with the content you’re intaking when it comes to gameplay in College Football 26. I’ve seen multiple videos now of people playing the game and getting upset about a glitch or saying “EA is under fire for ____” when, if you play the game yourself, you may never see that glitch. I also confirmed a few of the “rumors” I’ve seen on TikTok and Twitter to find they aren’t issues at all. So before you decide on if you want this game yourself, please double and triple check sources before making the final decision.**

Dynasty

This mode is my bread and butter and where I would say a number of you spend the majority of your time in the College Football franchise. There are some major updates to quality of life for Dynasty and  much needed changes to specific elements.

From a quality of life perspective, things have gotten so much better. The recruitment board is easier to navigate, with a full bar of your team's needs at the top to help you keep track of which players you should be focusing on, as well as how many you may already be recruiting. Gone are the days when I had a piece of paper next to me with all of the needed positions on it with players I had already talked to from those positions. Be aware, letting the CPU recruit for you will put you in a rough place, as it won’t even try to go after higher-star players. If you want to have better chances at four/five-star players as a smaller school, be sure to recruit for yourself. 

You can now manually upgrade your players. While some players may never want to do this, all you have to do is toggle the way you want to play. The ability to manually upgrade players adds a fun new element to the game, allowing you to upgrade the player to fit the scheme they’re in at your school, even if it’s not their “normal” progression, if you let the CPU handle it. 

Teams also have better control of staff, with staff warning you sooner of their departure, so you know they’ve left and can fill the spot. I really love finding coaches looking for new homes. This is a fun addition since the inclusion of real-life coaches in the game. 

The transfer portal feels more alive, with many more players hitting the portal. This means you’ll have a better chance to fill holes in your roster with good players without losing out to all of the bigger schools just because that’s who is available. While you probably won’t find many five-star recruits here, you’ll find more four and five-stars than last year for sure. Just keep an eye out. 

Rivalry games feel much more alive with the inclusion of the new presentation updates I mentioned earlier. For instance, playing a Washington vs Oregon game at Oregon felt wild. The lights, crowd, mascots, everything felt even more grandiose than last year. 

This year, I used one of the new teams for the game, Missouri State, for my opening team as an OC. Stayed there two seasons to lead them to a pretty decent record. I followed that up with a trip to Rutgers, where I went 2-10 and then 10-2 and a bowl game. Timed it up right because that 2029 offseason I was named the head coach of Tennessee, and I never looked back. Time for the Vols to have a dynasty for the first time in a while. #Vol4Life

While the basics of the game may not have changed as much, the mode feels insanely polished with few issues to talk about. If you enjoy running a team from the OC, DC, or HC positions with full control over recruiting, or if you just like playing the games and winning playoffs, you can change sliders and options to fit your playstyle. 

Road to Glory

From the top to the bottom, I had a lot more fun in Road to Glory this year than in 2025. The addition of playing through high school big moments adds a lot. Not always the games themselves, but the ramifications of those games.

If your goal is to be recruited as a five-star to an SEC or Big10 school, you better make sure you’re succeeding on those gameplay moments. You can redo a gameplay moment in every difficulty except for Heisman. Be aware, trying for five stars on Heisman is VERY hard and will take a few tries to be sure. 

You’ll again have access to the QB, RB, WR, MLB, and CB positions to play through with each one having its own strengths and weaknesses. My advice is to play whatever position you really want to and just allow the story to make itself known. If you have a clear goal in mind for which school you want to play for, I would suggest Quarterback, as it seems the easiest to do well enough to have a pick of schools you’d want the most. 

I loved getting to pick the top 10 schools you want to go to while also getting offers from schools not on your list. My top three schools ended up being Washington (offering me 2nd string), Tennessee (offering me 3rd string), and Auburn (offering me 2nd string). Meanwhile, I did have offers from many schools where I could instantly start. However, I wanted to see how hard it would be to move up from QB3 to QB1. 

The answer is, it wasn’t that hard. If you play the game in a way that says you want to start, you can do it fairly quickly for most schools. I became QB1 after Week 3 after a horrible loss in Week 2. Week 1-2 is when I had the QB3 to QB2 battle, and Week 3 I had the QB2 to QB1 battle. After that, I never let go. If you play the game in funny or different ways, however, it can go from a QB1 joyride to riding the bench for the first two to three years. You’ve probably seen from now you can make some pretty wild choices early on, so just have a general idea of what you want this character to look like and move from there.

Something that helps a lot in keeping things going in the right direction is simply making good choices. Study when you need to, put time into leadership, don’t cheat on your final, and don’t embarrass yourself and the team.

I also love the amount of choices early on in Road to Glory, with everything from Homecoming (which I embarrassed myself) to road trips with team members and even parties. Something I found, though, was that as time went by, those things became less and less frequent. Once I hit my Sophomore season, I really didn’t interact with many people outside the academic advisor and sometimes my coach. I would love to see more side tasks for next year’s Road to Glory. 

The trophy room is a beautiful piece of work showcasing everything you've done in your career. You’ll be able to bring your Road to Glory character over to Madden Superstar Mode again this year, so get those players ready for the launch of Madden NFL 26 to see where they go after college!

Road to the CFP

I’ll be transparent here, I understand the desire for an open competition inside of College Football 26, but this is not my game mode. This is where the best of the best will go 1-1 with the best of the best to try and get that Top 100 position and bragging rights. It’s simply not how I enjoy these games, however. 

If you’re looking for a way to prove you’re the best of the best at this franchise, Road to the College Football Playoffs provides the most fair / equal way of playing against opponents while still representing your fandoms.  

Ultimate Team

This mode is as all Ultimate Team feels. You know what you’re getting into with this mode. You’ll need to either grind dailies and get packs through the store or purchase the credits to get the bundles. The Solo Daily grind is not one for the weak-willed, but it provides enough rewards to be worth your time. 

I find myself always put up against people way better than me in one way or another, especially early in the season. Everyone is lower tier as they start, and it’ll take a few weeks for the tiers to truly take shape. If you’re wanting to check out this mode for the first time, I would suggest the deluxe edition since it’ll provide some good rewards to kickstart your team past the opening-game packs. 

Final Thoughts

I’ve sat down with this team and talked about how much it takes to make things happen. I know the passion and desire they have to make this not just the best football game, but the best sports game. The issue lies with the timetable of deliverables to make a yearly release happen. Think about it, if the game comes out in July, you have August-October fixing and polishing the things found after launch, while also putting out content. All the while and for the rest of the life-cycle, new content is constantly being published for modes like Road to CFP and Ultimate Team, as well as new animations and moments added from the current season. Then you have to be ready to show something for the previews during the summer of the next year? That’s basically six to MAYBE nine months to do EVERYTHING you have to do to make this new game happen. I don’t blame the team for the lack of polish on CFB26 compared to CFB25. I blame the timetable. 

College Football 26 is a wildly good time with new quality of life moments making Road to Glory and Dynasty feel much more streamlined. However, many of the new elements, such as the AI tuning, small visual glitches, etc., hold it back from feeling as fresh as CFB25. If you enjoy the vibes of college football and want to have CFB25 but better, I’d suggest going ahead and getting College Football 26. I just wish this team, which has proven it can put out polished content, had more time to fine-tune everything about this year’s iteration.