College Football 26: My Honest Experience With EA's Wildly Ambitious Follow-Up

When College Football 25 came out last year, I poured time into it like I hadn’t with a sports game in years. As the return we’d all been waiting for after a decade in the wilderness, it delivered a needed fix of college football that Madden never really managed to recreate. So when EA Sports followed it up with College Football 26 less than a year later, I had two competing expectations: one, that it would build on the parts that made the last game feel so right, and two, that the pressure to deliver so quickly might show some seams.

Now, after spending over 30 hours with College Football 26 across Dynasty Mode, Road to Glory, and way too many Play Now rivalry games, I can say it clearly: this sequel absolutely moves things forward where it counts. It isn’t flawless, and it doesn’t reinvent anything, but it takes what worked in College Football 25 and makes it more satisfying, more responsive, and, weirdly enough, more meaningful.

Let me start with the gameplay, because that’s where the most obvious improvements hit the hardest. Defensive backs actually behave like human beings now, and if they don’t turn their heads to see the ball, they can’t intercept it. I can’t stress enough how much better that one change makes the passing game feel. It’s not so much about avoiding the psychic picks that plagued the series before; it’s more so having a more honest risk-reward balance on every throw. In this version, if my quarterback throws into coverage, and the DB has his back to the ball, I know I’ve got a chance. Maybe it’s a catch. Maybe it’s a swat. But it’s not going to be an eye-in-the-back-of-his-head interception anymore.

Running the ball feels smoother as well. Blocking logic has improved dramatically, guards actually pull in time, tackles seal the edge like they’re supposed to, and wide receivers chip in on the second level. When I call a pitch play now, I don’t do it with a pit in my stomach like last year. The animations are better as well. Running backs fight through traffic more convincingly and can reach out for extra yardage using the right stick; it’s the little details that make drives feel more physical and more alive.

There’s also a clever detail with quarterback height. I played as both a shorter dual-threat QB and a tall pocket passer across a couple of Dynasty and Road to Glory campaigns, and it was interesting to feel the difference in field vision. Shorter QBs really do struggle to throw over tall linemen when throwing between the hashes. You need to move the pocket or pick different angles, and that made my decisions feel more strategic. It’s a subtle mechanic, but once I noticed it, I appreciated how it added a real sense of identity to my quarterbacks.

On the field, the gameplay has tightened in ways that you immediately feel. College Football 26 introduces over 2,800 new plays and 45 new formations, giving teams much more distinctive play styles. I experimented with Penn State’s two-quarterback swinging gate formations, which felt chaotic in the best way. Then I ran with Arizona’s defense to watch them spike the ball onto the Wildcats' turnover sword after a fumble recovery. Details like that make every program feel personalized and lived-in.

The new Wear and Tear 2.0 system introduces contact-based injury tracking. The location and force of each hit now determine how susceptible players are to injury. For example, repeated hits over the middle may raise a receiver’s risk for a mid-game injury. If a player is injured, the user can choose a type of treatment, such as light or heavy taping, which affects both the player's return time and their performance or durability afterward.

I can’t talk about this game without getting into the presentation, which has made huge strides this year. The crowd is louder, more varied, and more reactive. Stadiums now feel like individual characters in their own right. At Michigan, when the entire crowd belts out “Mr. Brightside” in the third quarter, it’s hard not to get goosebumps even if you’re on the other side of the scoreboard. At Virginia Tech, the “Enter Sandman” intro gets your heart racing before the ball’s even been snapped. The dynamic lighting changes based on the season and kickoff time, so playing a 6 PM game in September looks different from playing the same time slot in November. It’s subtle, but you notice it, especially in Dynasty Mode, where the calendar actually matters.

The Trophy Room might be my favorite addition. There are 85 real-life rivalry trophies in the game, and every time you win one, whether you’re playing in Road to Glory, Dynasty, or even Quick Play, it gets added to your collection. These aren’t generic tokens either – they come with history and context. When I lost to Maryland as the Navy and missed out on a silver bowl of crabs, I was actually upset. That loss meant something. Mid-game overlays reference real-world stats dating all the way back to 1869, including head-to-head records and previous meeting outcomes, and those stats carry forward across seasons. It gives every matchup a feeling of legacy, even if it’s one you weren’t expecting to care about.

Dynasty Mode has been polished in all the right places. The recruiting screen now displays your team needs up top, which means I don’t have to cross-reference a list or keep a notepad nearby anymore. You can manually upgrade players to fit your system instead of letting the CPU handle development blindly. The transfer portal is more active this year, with over 2,000 players entering each offseason, and that’s opened up more chances to grab overlooked four- and five-star talent, especially if you’re running a program that’s on the rise. Coaches now alert you ahead of time when they’re leaving, which gives you the time to start recruiting replacements, and the interface itself is cleaner and more responsive.

My personal Dynasty journey this year started as an offensive coordinator at Missouri State. After a couple of solid seasons, I took over at Rutgers and had a rough first year, going 2–10. But I stuck with it, brought in my guys, and by the second season we were 10–2 and made it to a bowl. That offseason, Tennessee offered me the head coach role, and that was it—I was building my SEC powerhouse from scratch. This kind of progression, with its highs and lows, felt way more satisfying than anything I experienced in College Football 25.

Road to Glory, while not as deeply improved, still gave me more to enjoy than last year. Starting in high school adds some stakes early on, and the system of four drives per week to prove yourself mostly works. I had challenges like rushing for 50 yards in a single drive, and I liked the idea, though I ran for 50 on a previous drive and still failed the challenge, which felt unfair. The character path feels smoother overall. I started as the QB3 at Tennessee and won the starting job by Week 3, but the journey didn’t feel rushed or scripted. Coaching conversations with real-life coaches, like Penn State’s James Franklin, helped sell the idea that you’re being recruited and watched.

Early on, I was making decisions about whether to study, go to a party, or how to handle Homecoming, and those choices felt like they mattered. Unfortunately, by my sophomore season, those social and personal events tapered off dramatically. I didn’t have much to do outside of class and practice after a while, and I hope that next year the off-field content expands and stays relevant longer.

Ultimate Team is serviceable. It’s the same structure as always: grind dailies, open packs, build your squad. I didn’t spend much time there, but it functions well for people who enjoy that loop. Road to the CFP, the ranked competitive mode, is still where the top players will go to test themselves in equalized online matchups. I admire its balance, but it’s not the mode I return to personally.

There are still glitches, although none have ruined the experience. The “mountain glitch,” where players morph into a strange gray blob after a touchdown, is probably the weirdest one I’ve seen. It doesn’t break the game, but it definitely kills the moment. Replay challenges are still limited. You’ll get commentary, maybe a cutscene, but there’s no visual referee or call to confirm the outcome. So, it does kind of feel like an unfinished feature. I also noticed that AI defenses still get confused by certain formations, especially if I line up a running back as a wide receiver in five-wide sets. Sometimes defenders don’t cover properly, and that can lead to easy touchdowns, even on higher difficulties.

But even with those small frustrations, College Football 26 succeeds where it matters most. It captures the spirit of the sport better than any football game I’ve ever played. The rivalries feel personal. The wins feel good because the gameplay backs them up, and the losses sting for the same reason. And when you think about how little time the developers had to put this together after last year’s debut, it’s honestly remarkable what they accomplished.