When the College Football video game series came back last summer after 11 years away, it didn’t really matter how good the game was, as long as it was the game fans remembered. For the most part, it was, and the reviews for College Football 25 were overwhelmingly positive, including from me.
Gamers agreed. It became the best-selling sports video game of all-time in total dollars, blowing away everyone’s expectations, including EA Sports’. It was so successful that schools and their licensing partners last fall began working to bring back a college basketball video game, which is expected to happen in the coming years.
But as the year went on and the newness of College Football 25 wore off, the holes in the game became easier to see. Dynasty Mode was bare-bones. Road to Glory didn’t have a high school mode. Gameplay was frustrating at times. The game was still very good, but there was obviously more to do. The developers admitted they couldn’t get to everything.
With the release of College Football 26 this week, EA Sports has filled most of those gaping holes. Does that mean it’s worth the $70 or more to upgrade to a new game? That’s up to each individual gamer and what they prioritize. In this review, I’ll go over what’s new and whether it makes buying a new game worth it.
Presentation
A lot of fine-tuning here. The incessant drumline from CFB25 has been replaced by bands playing real songs and fight songs, making daily returns to the game much more enjoyable. The Trophy Room is back, providing both a fun background quest and educational tool (you can see every trophy’s winner throughout history). The addition of most FBS coaches’ likeness provides an upgrade to the game’s realism, even if many of the virtual coaches need some graphics fine-tuning.
First look at Mike Gundy in game pic.twitter.com/cCOf9VY1DB
— PokeNation (@Big12Pokes) July 7, 2025
There are more actual songs and traditions. Virginia Tech runs in to “Enter Sandman”. Michigan fans sing “Mr. Brightside” after the third quarter and continue after the band stops playing. The dynamic lighting for afternoon games is a really nice touch, turning a day game into a night game for the second half. Gameplay animation has also gone up a notch, making tackles look better. Not much needed to be tweaked here, but enough was that it’s noticeable.
CFB25 grade: A
CFB26 grade: A
Gameplay
Playing an actual game in CFB26 is different enough from CFB25 that it takes some time to adjust to the speed. Receivers can come back to the ball. Quarterback accuracy is a bit tougher to master, but catches broken up by a hit seem significantly rarer, a welcome change. Pass plays feel less predictable; there are more surprise catches and missed throws.
If you’re a hardcore player, there are enough new features like substitutions and pre-snap changes to play around with a lot. Playbooks are deeper. I’ve seen a handful of glitches and experienced one myself on a field goal. Those are bound to happen and hopefully will get fixed in patches, and gamers will likely find unstoppable plays as they always do.
The gameplay is good, but this itself probably wouldn’t be a reason to upgrade from CFB25.
CFB25 grade: B+
CFB26 grade: A-
Dynasty Mode
Dynasty Mode is much more customizable, but make sure you get your settings right, or you could have problems. The transfer portal is maybe too active, with numerous Power 4 starting quarterbacks on the move, and it’s really hard for Group of 5 schools to keep top players … unless you lower the maximum number of transfers per team per offseason. So far, I think it’s easier to build a team through the portal than high school recruiting. And if you don’t manually recruit much, make sure you have CPU recruiting turned on. I simulated a Michigan State season without manual recruiting, and I had just 49 players on my roster going into Year 2, including one running back. And because you can only add 35 players, it’s hard to get back up to 85. I simmed a second season and got fired after a 6-7 year — only to end up with the SMU job as the Mustangs came off an 11-2 season.
Which brings me to the coaching carousel, which seems to always be wild and sometimes nonsensical. Joey McGuire left Texas Tech for the Alabama defensive coordinator job despite a top-10 season and is now working under Dabo Swinney. Shane Beamer took the Clemson job while in the middle of winning a national championship at South Carolina. Bret Bielema (Washington), PJ Fleck (Illinois) and Matt Campbell (TCU) took jobs within their current conference. Several good G5 head coaches leave for P4 coordinator jobs. On one hand, this is all extremely funny now that the real coaches are featured in the game. On the other, it’s not as realistic. But how realistic a video game should be depends on personal taste.
The rest of the Dynasty Mode tweaks are minor but helpful. Protected opponents are nice. You can now see your recruiting needs list on the prospect list screen, rather than needing to hit buttons to find it. The gear available for a custom coach character is much deeper. It’s more difficult to raise all your coach’s traits. Dynasty is also finally usable in cross-play between PlayStation 5 and Xbox players. But be warned that position switches have had some skill cap problems. I wouldn’t personally upgrade solely for Dynasty, but others might.
CFB25 grade: B+
CFB26 grade: A-
Road to Glory
This is one of the game’s biggest changes. High school mode is back, and it’s a lot of fun, coming from someone who thought high school mode was too overwhelming in the old NCAA games. Each week (of five), you are given four sets of goals. Each set must be completed on its own individual drive. Completing goals gives you more tape points. If you’ve made yourself a five-star recruit, you need a lot of points to stay that high. If you start as a lower-ranked recruit, you can move up. It can be pretty hard, and simply accomplishing goals might not be enough. I started as a five-star recruit, the No. 3 quarterback in the nation. I completed almost all of my goals and finished as a three-star recruit, down to No. 96 at my position. While I appeared to work back up to a four-star during my senior day game, I remained a three-star when I got back to the menu.
You pick your top 10 schools at the start and can adjust them each week. As a five-star recruit, I got loads of Group of 5 offers each week. But it matters where you rank teams, too. Ryan Day asked me to complete a 50-yard pass, which I did. But he later was offended I had Michigan State ahead of Ohio State on my list and talked down about the Spartans. In response, I made a social media post announcing I wouldn’t go to Ohio State, which helped my standing with other schools.
College mode in Road to Glory is mostly the same. You can also choose to skip high school mode if you don’t want to do it. Overall, this mode is a huge leap from the previous game.
CFB25 grade: B-
CFB26 grade: B+
Other features and notes
Online play (Road to the CFP) now has home-field advantage, which is randomized and makes a difference. Before a game, a screen shows your opponent’s historical pass/run breakdown, a nice addition. It’s still frustrating that you must use your specific team’s playbook in Road to the CFP, rather than another school or a custom playbook. I’ve asked game developers about this, and they always tell me the point is for users to get the real feel of playing with a team, rather than something like running the option at Alabama.
I haven’t used Team Builder or Ultimate Team very much yet on CFB26, but I didn’t play either much in last year’s game. UT is just not my thing, but I openly acknowledge that it’s the way a lot of younger players play the game. Team Builder was barely usable last year, and so far this year, it’s crashing quite a bit in Google Chrome, the most popular browser. EA Sports has posted a workaround, but that remains a clear foundational problem.
Pro tip for using our #CFB26 Team Builder website!
Make sure your web browser has “Graphics Acceleration” set to [ON] in the settings for a smoother performance.
Example on how to enable for Chrome:
1. Head to Settings
2. Click System
3. Enable “Use graphics acceleration when…— CFBDirect (@CFBDirect) July 8, 2025
Final Grade
Something I keep thinking about College Football 26 is just how much game it is. You can do so many different things that I at times wonder if it’s too much. Playbooks are insanely deep. Dynasty Mode is so customizable now but can easily go wrong for someone who doesn’t know what they’re doing. That reflects the broader state of video games, which have had to get deeper and more intricate to satisfy hardcore, dedicated audiences. Developers have to balance keeping so many groups happy (just look up the online uproar asking for more customizable player equipment).
But what about the casuals? They matter, right? Some people just want to pick up a game and play without needing to put in thousands of hours. Some of you reading this probably fall into that group. I don’t think CFB26 is over-complicated yet, but I am concerned the franchise could get there in an attempt to make the game feel new every year, breaking itself in the process. That’s what some gamers feel happened to Madden. (The potential college basketball franchise may not be an every-year game, just updating rosters in off-years).
Then again, you have to change a game to make it worth upgrading every year. That’s the business. Which brings me back to the original question of this review. Is this game worth upgrading from the previous year?
If you just play by yourself, it’s a close call. If you’re only a casual Dynasty person, probably not. If you’re a big Road to Glory person, definitely yes. If you’re a heavy online player, it’s an obvious yes. What has always made college football games feel new every year is the sport’s high roster turnover, which has accelerated in recent years thanks to the transfer portal. Those roster changes are enough for many people to want the new game, and the inclusion of the real players’ names and likenesses makes that feeling easy to spot.
All in all, the game is loaded across the board with minor upgrades that add up to a lot, along with a few actual big changes. The biggest gaping holes in CFB25 have been filled.
This game, like last year’s, is a love letter to all of college football. Everything that makes this sport different from the NFL is highlighted. It’s so nice that this game is regularly back in our lives. This is still the honeymoon period, and I’m going to enjoy that for now.
CFB25 grade: B+
CFB26 grade: A-
(Gameplay screenshots courtesy of EA Sports)
Chris Vannini covers national college football issues and the coaching carousel for The Athletic. A co-winner of the FWAA’s Beat Writer of the Year Award in 2018, he previously was managing editor of CoachingSearch.com. Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisVannini
