Last year, we were over the moon with the return of the EA College Football franchise. We gave it a very glowing review overall, at least as it pertained to reintroducing the classic game.
And, in one-off tilts, it still held up pretty well. However, familiarity does often breed contempt, and the longer you played, the more you noticed the raft of missing features, unnecessary gameplay nerfs, and baffling lack of QOL and immersion mechanics that made the experience veer from stale to frustrating.
Among them:
The lack of formation subs, a feature in every previous installment
The lack of real FCS programs, and the ability to “step down” in prestige from your program
Teambuilder locked behind online-only gameplay
Horrendous blocking mechanics
Borked physics engine, particularly with leaping ability and the ballistic arc of passing trajectories
Uneven difficulty levels
The lack of a tutorial
God-mode opponent DB and woeful PC WR route-running, particularly notable on PA passing.
Bare bones records, historic stats, season stats — even the inability to scout your opponent
Generic awards, broken recipients, and greatly overdrafted players across the board.
Online matchmaking, and so many others.
It wasn’t perfect, in other words. Worse, so many of these features could have been added or fixed with a hot patch or never made sense to omit in the first place — aside from sheer laziness.
Still, this January, EA said that they were listening to player feedback and would be “instituting changes.”
So, what has been changed, at least that we know of? Besides the welcome addition of a High School Road to Glory mode, the answer is “not much that won’t earn EA a few extra bucks.”
How so? Check out the creeping number of pre-order editions, Gacha pay-to-win packages, XP boosts, elite recruits, Ultimate Teams and a dizzying array of other game features paywalled behind a premium price point and augmented by microtransactions.
Then, we discovered a “partnership” deal, whereby every game would functionally become an in-game advertisement for Lowe’s. Did we discover this from EA? No. It was Lowe’s who blew the whistle:
More details about the game have emerged from an unexpected source. The home improvement chain Lowe’s has announced a collaboration with EA Sports to feature its branding in CFB 26, along with the newest EA Sports FC and Madden NFL titles.
Lowe’s branding will appear in these games “across multiple gameplay experiences,” the retailer said. For CFB 26, Lowe’s branding will show up on the broadcast overlay for the Stadium Pulse feature. This feature aims to replicate the pressure of playing an away game by making certain gameplay elements more difficult for a short period of time. Lowe’s said this draws “meaningful parallels to the passion homeowners feel when enhancing their own spaces with Lowe’s.”
What has not been discussed is the commitment to fixing the core gameplay loop, game balance, matchmaking, computer logic, recruiting, NIL, or even immersive quality of life features. Because I very much doubt any of that will be addressed — they are certainly not included in the developer’s notes.
What began last year with so much promise is shaping up to be not the good launching point towards rebuilding a franchise that we had hoped for. Rather, I fear we are staring at an annualized vehicle intended to sell add-ons, and wrapped up in a package that is just good enough to keep a core audience buying just enough games and microtransactions to do it all again next year.
That has been at the heart of the EA business model for a decade with FIFA and Madden. Expect nothing different with CFB ‘26…they’ve given us little reason to think anything will change, or that meaningful improvement will come this time around.
I’d like to say that I’m disappointed. But you can’t be disappointed if your expectations were low to begin with.
Poll
Are you planning on purchasing CFB ‘26?
32%
Only if the reviews are glowing and/or serious changes have been made.
(247 votes)
34%
Yes, even if there are not vast improvements made over CFB ‘25.
(260 votes)
18%
Nope. I’m done giving companies money and getting slop in return.
(140 votes)
7%
No. I don’t game / it is not available on PC
(57 votes)
7%
$70? In this economy? Are you crazy?
(59 votes)
763 votes total