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

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On July 14, 2025

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.