College Football 26 Review – Sophomore Shine

College Football 26 is a College Football video game developed by EA Orlando and published by EA Sports. It is currently available for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S. CFB 26 is the second entry in EA’s “rebirth” of the series, which came back last year after a decade+ long hiatus.

This year, EA Sports introduced Real Coaches, two new teams, and improvements to both the gameplay and various modes. Like last year, thousands of real college athletes have their name, image, and likeness in the game.

College Football 26 Review – Gameplay

At its core, College Football 26’s gameplay feels just like last year’s product. Normally, this would be an issue with me, considering I never really liked Frostbite Engine in sports games. But last year, CFB 25 proved that there can be good sports games on Frostbite, if done right.

What I like about the EA College games over Madden is the emphasis on speed. Players move faster in the game, whereas in Madden it feels like it takes 10 years to spin. And we’ve already seen how the CFB series has influenced Madden in a couple of ways:

• Advanced Passing implemented in Madden 25
• Wear & Tear Injury Mechanic in Madden 26

While I still have my share of problems with Madden, I believe the series has benefitted thanks to College Football 26. But back to CFB 26 itself.

What I like most about College Football 26 gameplay is the increased amount of control the developers have given the player this year.

Perhaps my favorite new feature in College Football 26’s gameplay is the new Dynamic Subs menu. You can now actively change your depth chart pre-snap so that you can swap players without pausing the game. This is a huge deal, especially when considering the game’s roster sizes. And because of Wear & Tear, you’ll need to sub often to keep your players in top shape.

The new Dynamic Subs menu makes it much easier to swap players, look at their health pools, and identify who you want coming in. In Dynasty Mode, I was able to keep a player from transferring by making good use of this feature.

Speaking of Wear & Tear / Player Health, College Football 26 also gave users more control over how the system works. While I like Wear & Tear, I felt the system was a bit too brutal for casual players. But now you can customize the settings to lower the impact of every type of hit.

Want Hit Sticks to deal more damage? Do you want Normal Tackles to have less of an impact on player health? College Football 26 gives players even more control over their experience than ever before.

Players also feel more unique in College Football 26. Thanks to the addition of more archetypes and the new Heisman Tier abilities, you start to see bigger differences between good and “great” players. Heisman Tier abilities make your best players even better, and I felt that when they started heating up in games.

Furthermore, the new archetypes also make Road To Glory more fun, encouraging multiple play-throughs, even at the same position. But we’ll dive into that mode more in a bit.

Of course, that’s not to say that CFB 26’s gameplay is perfect. There are still a few issues that need addressing.

While I do think Frostbite Engine works well in College Football 26, it has its issues. Everything still feels too animation-based. I’ll see a player getting tackled to the ground, only to watch their body switch between three animations in a one second span. It looks weird, but more importantly, it feels weird.

Secondly, AI Blocking feels terrible. Even if you adjust the blocking gameplay sliders, AI teammates still don’t recognize big blocking opportunities. I don’t know how many touchdowns, first downs, or big plays I’ve lost due to the negligence of the AI. Although the developers implemented new blocking gameplay features, it feels like the CPU knows how to use none of those things.

Furthermore, the game added 2,800+ new plays along with 45+ new formations. But if I can be honest, playbooks don’t feel as expansive as it seems. I always get recommended the same 10-15 plays, and it’s hard to identify which plays are actually “new”. Many plays often look the same, but have slight differences that can be changed anyway pre-snap via hot routes.

Sure, if you play as Army, you may see more run play recommendations. But most schools seemingly offer the same plays.

However, in terms of formations, College Football 26 brings some pretty big and awesome changes. The developers added new motion types, and now you can have multiple players moving pre-snap instead of just one at a time.

Speaking of Pre-Snap, College Football 26 enables you to customize your pass protections. So not only do you have more control over your subs and receiver routes, but now you have more control over your O-Line.

Another thing you can do pre-snap is adjust custom zones and stems. Say you want your receiver to go a bit deeper on their slant, or for your tight tend to move closer to you. Thanks to these custom zones, you can enable new types of routes and strategies to help your team remain unpredictable.

Like we said, College Football 26 offers more control than ever in terms of gameplay. Dynamic Subs, Custom Zones, Custom Pass Protections, more archetypes, more formations, and more customization to Wear & Tear creates a much more evolved experience.

Instead of adding in complex features that will likely get removed in a few years, EA Orlando focused on improving what they already had. Instead of fixing what wasn’t broken, they sweetened the pot with mechanics that improve the core experience.

Aside from a few areas that could be improved via updates (like the blocking), College Football 26 offers an amazing gameplay experience.

College Football 26 Review – Dynasty, Road To Glory, & Ultimate Team

College Football 26 features various modes, and we’re going to focus on the big three: Ultimate Team, Dynasty, & Road To Glory

Last year, I praised Dynasty as the best mode in College Football 25. But this year, I feel like Road To Glory’s improvements have made it the best its ever been. While the core experience is the same, there have been some massive additions to make RTG feel like so much more.

Firstly, I love the new High School Experience. It’s only five games long, but feels like a substantial addition to the mode. Not only that, but it actually gives you a fighting chance to sign with your dream school.

In CFB 25, you were at the mercy of your recruit rating (a star-rating between 2 and five stars). And while there’s still a star-rating in RTG this year, you can influence it with your performance in High School.

Playing well in High School and completing Key Moments influences schools to offer you a scholarship. Not only that, but your archetype influences which types of challenges you can complete. The High School Experience alone feels like its own mode, filled with a bunch of different challenges that players can experience.

Creating a list of 10 schools, impressing those schools, and cutting them down to your top 3 is so much fun. And on Signing Day, you’ll be able to mess around with all three of the hats before finally picking your school.

Once in College, the overall structure of RTG remains the same. But the developers added some improvements to the mode that make things more convenient for players.

Rest assured, you’ll still face plenty of dilemma during your college days. But I enjoy the challenge of deciding where I want to spend my Energy Points every week. Sometimes, the game will throw different situations your way, which may cost energy points and leave you with less.

In terms of gameplay, RTG still requires you to unlock more play calls, and audibles, hot routes, and much more. While some players may not like how limited it feels, at least you gain more control once you unlock Audibles. At that point, it doesn’t even matter what play you call any more.

Personally, I just have three gripes with RTG this year:

Firstly, I wish the mode offered more positions to play as. While I like all the new archetypes, It would’ve been cool to play other positions like Safety or anywhere on the Defensive Line. We hope to see the addition of more positions in future titles.

Secondly, I wish you could just get access to the full playbook at some point. I know the Coach is the one who calls the shots. But you think at a certain point you’d earn enough trust to just pick plays on your own.

But aside from those issues, I really enjoyed my experience with Road To Glory this year. The amount of effort put in this year gives me confidence that EA Orlando can continue to enrich the mode without compromising the fun it offers.

Dynasty is still great for both newcomers and returning players. While we feel it didn’t receive as much love as RTG, it’s also still incredibly fun, and offers a more complex experience for those who want it.

This year, College Football 26 features over 300 real-life coaches who you can actually control in the game. So when you boot up Dynasty, you could see yourself taking over Ohio State HC Ryan Day. Or, you can still create your own coach and replace Day if you want.

What I really enjoy about Dynasty is the control you now have over the Transfer Portal. This enables you to edit the maximum and minimum number of transfers in a given year, or from a school, etc.

And in terms of content, there’s more physical and mental abilities to play around with. Fortunately, you can now manually progress players in Dynasty via their Player Card. So if you want your QB to improve his accuracy, you can directly control his progression yourself.

These three changes alone represent some of the ways CFB 26 offers players more control. This, along with all of the quality of life improvements to recruiting, new depth chart positions, and more make it all feel whole.

And whether you play Dynasty or Road To Glory, you’ll have access to both the Trophy Room and CFB history.

The former is a really cool page where you can collect trophies by completing certain match types. For example, I beat Ohio State in the Big 10 Conference Championship game, which unlocked a trophy for my room. This was so cool as I earned new trophies by playing with different teams.

The game even records every time you’ve earned the trophy or award, who you earned it with, and what the game score was. Overall, these are all fantastic ways to keep your history logged so you can celebrate your accomplishments. It makes playing College Football 26 fun for the long run.

CFB History is even more insane, as it has records, award winners, Bowl winners, and so much more dating back a long time. This Tab even features data from the 1800s, which is wild! Of course, you can alter these pages yourself by playing well in either Dynasty or RTG.

Broke a record? The CFB history tab will now display your achievement. Overall, both of these tabs heighten both the gameplay and presentation of the game. I would love to see EA expand upon these ideas in future installments.

Personally, I never cared for Ultimate Team. And CFB 26 does nothing to make me care for it any more. But if you’re a fan of the mode, I’m sure you’ll like what’s offered here. I think the mode has been stagnant for years, and its microtransactions are the reason we don’t give this game a 10.

But Ultimate Team aside, I still enjoy the other two core modes offered in the package. Road To Glory especially has been a blast to play, while I’m sure Dynasty fans will appreciate the improvements in their mode.

EA Sports College Football 26 Review – Graphics & Presentation

While not a massive upgrade over last year’s game, College Football 26 still looks incredible. Basic things like player models, uniforms, and stadium lighting all look the same. But that’s all okay with me, because it seems this year the developers wanted to focus more on gameplay and presentation. Personally, I think they prioritized the right things this year.

Many team intros look vastly better this year, with new drone shows, fireworks, and so much more to celebrate Gameday. Furthermore, the game has more mascots, not to mention the addition of Real Coaches ups the authenticity.

I really like the new Dynamic Lighting when it comes to later games. If you start a game at 6:30 PM, you’ll see it get darker throughout each quarter. This gradual change in lighting makes evening matches much more exciting.

Furthermore, I love the new scoreboard. Somehow, EA Sports cooked two years in a row, producing better scoreboards than some official broadcasting companies. But the team still kept its College Identity with little details in the UI. From the chalk-board lettering to the route art, the developers are really celebrating the identity of Football.

Presentation continues to wow us in College Football 26. Like we mentioned, EA Orlando added more Mascots, more unique team intros, real coaches, and more band music. On the field, they absolutely nailed the presentation.

However, there’s two areas in which Presentation could be improved in the game.

Firstly, commentary still feels a bit weak. While not terrible, I was never really sucked into what the commentators were saying. That’s not to say anyone was bad, but they weren’t as memorable. But to be fair, there’s a couple of arguments to defend this.

In general, Football commentary isn’t as colorful as it is in other sports like the MLB. Furthermore, there’s 136 teams in this game, compared to the 30 or 32 we see in the MLB or NFL. Therefore, creating unique commentary won’t be easy, especially when each team has changing storylines every offseason.

But other area that needs improvement is Presentation OFF the field. In Dynasty, I wish there was a bit more to see off the field after each week. Instead of just a few recaps, it’d be cool to have a school paper, detailing your school’s latest game.

This feature could even be expanded in Road To Glory. For example, if the fire alarm woke your player up, then it’d be cool to see the school paper mention that. I’m not saying this has to be done, but ideas like this could make each mode feel a bit more full of life.

Another idea would be to transform the Trophy Room into an actual trophy room. The idea of moving around your own room would be cool and a testament to what you’ve accomplished.

Other than that though, I’m still impressed with the game’s Presentation. and overall, College Football 26 is the best-looking sports game right now.

College Football 26 Review – Audio

It’s nice to hear the menus have more music than just a drumline. And speaking of the music, there’s a good amount of tracks to keep things fresh. So already there’s a big improvement in terms of audio.

While I do like the idea of using real marching band music, I sometimes get a bit sick of it. It would be nice to have both versions of the song, if possible. Personally, I’d like to hear more instruments than just from what the Marching Band offers.

Here’s an idea – why not reach out to students who are in bands at a college and get them to make some songs for the game? There’s a lot of bands across colleges all over America, and there’s no better way to represent the student body than by including even more students. So not only will you have marching band music, but you can have bands from kids representing their schools.

College Football is more than just the players and coaches. It’s the fans who come every Saturday or tune into their TV to watch their favorite teams play. So finding passionate people who want to make music and rep their school shouldn’t be impossible. Maybe it’s a crazy idea, but I think it would benefit everyone in the long run.

But overall, College Football 26 more than does its just in the sound department. The crowds, tackles, referee whistles — everything all sounds authentic. So there’s really nothing to complain about here.

Verdict: Is EA Sports College Football 26 Worth Your Time & Money? – Review

Over the course of the year, I was worried about College Football 26. I wasn’t sure what to expect. But EA Orlando actually surprised me this year and produced a great follow-up title to CFB 25. Instead of adding gimmicks, they just added more to what they already had.

Furthermore, they gave players a lot more control this year. Whether it’s things off the field like Wear & Tear sliders, or improvements on the field like Dynamic Subs and new Pass Protections, you have a lot more freedom in how you want to play.

Additionally, College Football 26 just has more of everything. More teams, more ways to move your receivers around, more ways to sub players, and a bigger Team Builder experience.

Of course, not everything is perfect. Frostbite still goes haywire sometimes, and RTG needs a few more improvements. Furthermore, While presentation is an A+, I think there’s a bit more that could be done off the field to make it even better.

But all of that aside, I still really enjoyed my time with the game. And thanks Cross-Play coming in modes like Dynasty, I can enjoy it even more with friends on other systems. I know we’re about halfway through the year, but once again, I feel like College Football 26 is already a frontrunner for best sports video game of 2025.

But while I recommend the game, I encourage those on the fence to consider the pros and cons I’ve listed. If you don’t care much for RTG, then you may not feel like too much is different. If you’re someone who just likes Dynasty, then maybe CFB 26 isn’t worth the $70 price tag. Therefore, it may be a good idea to wait for a sale to pick it up.

At the end of the day though, College Football 26 is a fantastic sports video game. I was pleasantly surprised to see this game was not just a re-skin of CFB 25. It offers a familiar experiences but with a ton of new content that makes it feel brand new.

Score: 9/10

That wraps up our College Football 26 Review. Keep checking back with us for more guides, roster updates, and more throughout the season. We hope you enjoy CFB 26!

Editor’s Note: ClutchPoints received a PS5 review copy to allow us to cover this game. These copies did not, in any way, affect our EA Sports College Football 26 Review score and verdict.

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