After the best sports video game in years with EA Sports College Football 25, the immersion and realism are taken to new levels with College Football 26—from gameplay to presentation to Dynasty mode depth and more.
As was the case for CFB 25, the first thing to do was jump into a Play Now matchup to get a general feel for the differences in this year’s game. I had much better luck than last year (when I was blown out using Colorado), instead choosing Penn State and winning a 13-10 slugfest over Indiana.
The Wear & Tear system came into play immediately by knocking out star quarterback Fernando Mendoza with a crushing sack on the second play of the game, and the Hoosiers still had success moving the ball with star wide receiver Elijah Sarratt torching me.
However, Indiana had a difficult time getting the ball into the end zone with two failed drives inside the five, and I believe Mendoza being knocked out played a role in their red zone offense not being as effective.
For my offense, I leaned on dominant running back duo Nicholas Singleton and Kaytron Allen for the most part, but quarterback Drew Allar felt very realistic to play with—including an accurate jump throw over a defender when rolling out to the right, a pass that sailed just out of reach when not setting my feet going to the left, and a bad decision on an interception in the red zone where I trusted Allar’s arm talent too much.
As I’ve continued to use other teams/players, CFB 26 definitely has more of a signature feel that matches real-life counterparts: cover athlete and Ohio State superstar Jeremiah Smith is close to unstoppable, the Penn State defensive front was ferocious, and a trio of exciting SEC quarterbacks (DJ Lagway, LaNorris Sellers, and Marcel Reed) all have their own uniqueness as virtual players.
The two major general improvements I’ve noticed thus far for gameplay are 1) cornerbacks playing the ball down the feel more realistically, particularly when swatting passes away at the catch point, and 2) using patience/pacing to get running backs into the open field is a lot smoother.
There are plenty of other changes that add even more realism to College Football 26, which I’ll hit on when discussing Dynasty Mode—where I expect they will be felt most!
Dynasty Mode
For me, the most exciting addition for CFB 26 is the inclusion of real-life coaches. Rather than starting a career as a coordinator under a computer-generated head coach or jumping right into the SEC as a head coach but not actually competing against Kirby Smart and Kalen DeBoer—we now get fully thrown into the world of college football.
Then when the coaching carousel spins towards the end of the season, it’ll be a lot more dramatic to see something like Brian Kelly getting fired at LSU or Lane Kiffin bolting for the Florida job.
I’m still unsettled about what my first Dynasty role will be, but one minor flaw to point out is the record shown in coach stats includes your time as a coordinator; that might be enough for me to immediately start as a HC despite usually preferring to be at the very bottom as a coordinator at a small school.
Other than the real-life coaches, other clear upgrades I alluded to that are most likely to be felt in Dynasty Mode (and Road to Glory) are:
Improved school traditions and pageantry. More signature traditions like Michigan fans signing “Mr. Brightside” in Ann Arbor or—as shown in the awesome College Football 26 trailer—Virginia Tech running out to “Enter Sandman” takes gamers right into the atmosphere of Saturdays in the fall.
Dynamic time of day. The new weather system has accurate lighting based on the placement of the sun that varies for kickoff times and time of year. For example, a 7:00 PM kickoff in early September will look different than a 7:00 kickoff in late November!
Authentic Play-Calling & Tendencies. The inclusion of real-life head coaches wouldn’t be that big of a deal in the grand scheme of things if they were simply cosmetic avatars, but that isn’t the case. Not only have playbooks been expanded with more schemes and concepts that we see throughout college football, but coaches will also call games from a philosophical perspective like they do in real life.
For what you could call more foundational upgrades to Dynasty mode itself, we also get to ability to lock opponents on the schedule to protect real-life matchups that are already set, and the addition of formation subs before games prevents the need to quickly click a bunch of buttons as the play clock winds down.
I won’t get too much into recruiting other than to say it’s a lot more detailed and realistic, and the most welcome update is seeing team needs right on the recruiting screen. Personally, I do have some concern about the importance of the transfer portal as someone who is similar to Dabo Swinney in wanting to focus on recruiting and developing players out of high school—but that’s modern-day college football for you! Finding a way to keep your own players happy is key.
Of course, we can’t forget the customization of your coach is a lot more detailed with different apparel, and even things like choosing “demeanor” and “stance” that adds some personality to your character.
Road to Glory
As a Dynasty main (which I believe is the case for most), Road to Glory doesn’t appeal to me like it did in the NCAA Football 14 days. However, there is no doubt it’s something that looks awesome for younger gamers. I would recommend reading the deep dive on the mode, but you have conversations with real-life coaches as a high school recruit and get to make decisions in your personal life to shape your personality. (Also notable is the ability to create a custom HS team with Team Builder.)
Then after Signing Day, the fun really begins at the college level with NIL deals, managing your health, keeping your head coach happy, and more—all while chasing championships and individual accolades.
Everything else
That brings us to the best of the rest—the Trophy Room.
For as great as College Football 25 was, Dynasty felt a bit hallow with no real record of your accomplishments over the years. By Year 3 of a dynasty, I would completely forget who won the championship and Heisman for my first season.
Now, we have a Trophy Room for each individual dynasty, and also one at the main menu with all the trophies earned throughout the game. So rather than having a note saved on my phone with year-over-year records, the Trophy Room will keep track of your history of success in Dynasty Mode.
I do hope the ability to delete trophies is added because I earned one for the first Play Now game I did with Penn State—saying I won the Peach Bowl for some reason. And I also have one for a rivalry game win with FIU after simulating through a dynasty that I only created to check out the coaching carousel and end-of-season recruiting for this review.
Somewhat tied into the Trophy Room, CFB 26 includes statistical records for every FBS program—adding another benchmark for you to chase if trying to fill out the Trophy Room with more titles than Nick Saban wasn’t enough.
For Ultimate Team, it’s much more overwhelming to me than Madden because there are so many players, and most of them I’ve never heard of—compared to knowing who everyone is for MUT. Similar to RTG, I won’t spend much time here (especially when the rosters are updated shortly before the season to start my primary dynasty), but having real player photos instead of virtual models for some cards of current college players at launch is certainly an improvement.
Finally, those without enough time to go through a full dynasty build might want to give Road to the College Football Playoff a shot. If you’re comfortable with head-to-head online play, seasons have been expanded to 12 games, and it’s a competitive mode that you could run through various times with different teams.
Conclusion
College Football 26 builds on everything great about CFB 25 with improved gameplay aspects, expanded team traditions, and the deepest Dynasty Mode yet as you compete with real-life coaches for championships, job openings, and recruits.
Score – 9.4