With the football season coming, so does the next generation of EA’s flagship college football franchise. To help get you accustomed with some of the tweaks to this year’s entry, here are 15 tips and tricks that you might not know as you head into another season on the gridiron.
Change the crowd pattern before any game
For stadiums where classic crowd patterns exist, you can choose to have the crowd wearing whichever patterns you want at whichever games you want. From a Penn State white-out to an LSU Purple Game in Death Valley, you can decide to have as many or as few of the classic crowd pattern games as you’d like, all customizable from the ready screen.
Modular cameras
There’s an additional new setting that allows you to adjust the preferred camera angles on a number of various occurrences within a game, which vary from the classic pre-play shot to how the camera reacts to when your player scores a touchdown. Head into the Visual Feedback section of the Game Settings and select Modular Camera Settings to set your preferences.
More detailed coverage adjustments (hold L2)
There’s a lot more of an ability to control how your secondary lines up and reacts throughout a particular play. By holding L2/LT, you can now choose more detailed coverage adjustments, including allowing you to tell defensive backs which way to shade their receiver and whether to play more conservatively or more aggressively when a play breaks down.
Coach pep talks
On occasion, when a player gets in their head and goes cold, you will now have the option from the substitution menu to have the coach give the player a pep talk. By doing so, you can calm their nerves and remove the ice from their name, putting them back at the top of their game and giving the team an extra boost in the process.
Custom Adjustments
In addition to the detailed on-field adjustments you can make, there’s also an opportunity to create Custom Adjustments, which include an extensive number of options for how you want the team to respond in certain scenarios. These exist for both offense and defense, and can cover everything from which play type defenders guess to pass catching aggressiveness. Make your own in the Create & Share section from the Main Menu.
Assign TE/HB to chip on a route
Within pre-snap pass protection adjustments, you can now ask any receiver to perform a chip block on a particular defender as they run their route. By pressing the hot route button, if your selected receiver has an eligible defender to block, you can press a button to have them chip that defender and release into their route. This risks the blocker losing the battle and falling down on their route, but if they win, it’s another blocker on a pass rusher.
Coach Mode dynasty
Coach Mode is a new presentation style in Dynasty that allows you to limit your input to calling plays on offense and defense, and in turn you watch each snap play out from the sidelines. This is a nice addition for those looking for a lower-touch way to play, and it can be turned on and customized in Dynasty Settings.
Recruits can change their mind in their top 3 after soft committing
When you’re recruiting for your Dynasty program, like in real life, you can’t always be sure that a commit won’t change their mind. Once you get to a recruit’s top 3 schools, they will sometimes soft commit, which indicates the preference for a certain school but allows the others in the top 3 to continue making an effort to sway them back their way.
Don’t renege on NIL commitments in dynasty
NIL money is a huge aspect of Dynasty recruiting now, both in real life and in game, and one way to quickly turn a recruit off from your school is to promise a certain amount of it and then backtrack on that promise later on in the process. The more you can offer a recruit, the likelier they are to be interested in your school, but be sure you can afford to pay it before you promise it.
Dynasty practice control (wear & tear)
Aside from recruiting and weekly games, the other main Dynasty action each week is to set your players’ practice schedules. If you’re worried about the wear and tear on a player’s body, you can set them to a limited amount of practice to reduce the chance of injury, but players who practice in full have a better chance of starting the game hot.
Put in the work in practice (RTG)
Road to Glory returns a number of minigames that help you improve your character by scoring various medals, and this year’s has streamlined the process to make your practice the main way you earn XP and improve trust with your coaches aside from in-game contributions. If you perform well in practice, you’re more likely to get into position battles and play on Saturdays, so you’ll want to maximize your chances each week.
UT archetypes and upgrades
Within Ultimate Team, players are now more directly linked to positional archetypes, each of which has their own upgrade pathway. By using skill points, you can upgrade individual players, but the upgraded traits depend on their specific archetype, such as a Dual-Threat or Pocket Passer quarterback. As you upgrade players that start with similar traits, they will diverge into two notably different styles based on the different attributes upgraded with each level.
Reset your Road to the CFP schedule
It’s not uncommon for a college team to know their season is going to end as a disappointment before the final game ends. While you can’t reset in real life, this year’s Road to the CFP allows you to reset your schedule if you’re unsatisfied with how a certain season is going. It won’t net you anything, but it’ll save you from having to play through multiple meaningless games just to have the chance to start over.
Unlocking mascots in Mascot Mashup
EA CFB 27 comes with 10 mascots unlocked and over 100 left for you to unlock. While the team select screen shows you that any mascot can be unlocked simply by winning a Play Now game with that team, it’s important to note that you have to play the full game. If you Super Sim or quit out, the mascot won’t be unlocked and you’ll have to start a fresh Play Now session.
Trophy Room (see your progress, with some additions)
The Trophy Room returns from previous years but is built out as a better progression monitor this time. Not only are you able to see each of your save files across different modes as well as the rivalry or bowl trophies you’ve accumulated across all modes, but you can now also see all of your unlocked mascots for Mascot Mashup, all with a sprinkle of historical context. Find the Trophy Room in the More section of the Main Menu.
