This guide for EA Sports College Football 26 is all about getting as many Skill Points as you can in order to upgrade your player.

Get The Best Start

The first step to maximizing your available skill points starts right on the ‘Choose Your Journey’ page where you select your player’s path. Elite athletes get the most Skill Points at their disposal, with the fewest being awarded to the Underdog.

Set A Weekly Agenda

A time management mechanic, the Weekly Agenda determines your athlete’s activities during the week, and must be carefully adjusted for maximum benefit using the Energy budget available. Training earns XP towards the levelling bar and each level accomplished earns Skill Points. On the flipside, excessive Training can cause Wear & Tear Impact and have an adverse impact on their performance, and potentially cause injuries. Neglecting other Meters, such as Academics, can also handicap your player.

Milestone completion also contributes XP towards the bar.

Perform Practice Drills

Practice Drills under the Skill tab in the Road To Glory Practice Hub can earn more XP for your athlete, but are dependent on actual performance. A poor showing in drills can prove detrimental to your player’s Coach Trust and future prospects.

Undertake Challenges

A variety of challenges in the Daily, Seasonal, and Ultimate categories can contribute XP as your player perfects his skills and makes use of those talents.

Play Your Position

Actual match performance has a significant impact on progression, expectedly. Simply play the position you have, and you will earn XP for doing your designated duties. Repeatedly ignoring them, on the other hand, will lose Coach Trust and slow your progression to a crawl.

Upgrading Player

Five weeks into Road To Glory, after your player is in college, you will be able to start upgrading your player.

All those accrued Skill Points can be used to upgrade any of six ratings in the Upgrade Player menu under Road To Glory. These ratings have sub-statistics that are based on player position, and are not individually tweakable, but can be improved by spending Skill Points to purchase point increases for the relevant rating. The Strength stat can be raised by adding Skill Points to Power, for example, while Awareness is increased by improving IQ.

There is an exponential increase to Skill Point cost for each rating, based on how high that rating already is.

That is how to earn as many Skill Points as possible in EA Sports College Football 26 and upgrade your player.

This guide for EA Sports College Football 26 has all the tips and tricks you can use to farm lots of coins quickly and efficiently, without spending any real money.

Weekly Packs

Spend some points to earn some coins: the Weekly Platinum Fantasy Pack is a steep purchase at 500 points, but can easily pay back dividends if you snag a player with a high OVR and then flip them for some of the easiest coins you can earn in the game. While Quick Sell is a viable method, do the work and put them up on the Auction House.

Pass Progression

The sporting equivalent of Battle Passes, the Field Pass is peppered with coin offerings and more high OVR players whom you can flip for their coin value at the Auction House. In order to level up the Field Pass, just grind away for XP like you normally do, while you naturally complete most dailies and chunks of seasonal objectives.

Events

House Rules Events are game modes available for a limited-time but contribute quick XP towards your Field Pass, which is the most surefire method for collecting coins, as previously mentioned. Rewards can also include coins or packs.

Challenges

These Ultimate Team missions are some of the simplest around and will net you several thousand coins as well as players and items that you can dispose of, in exchange for their coin value, if you are not inclined to retain them.

Solo Seasons

Of all the game modes, this one is the most stable and quick source for coin farming. Even final failures still net you thousands of coins, over and above the thousands you earn just getting there. The packs can have something sellable for profit as well.

All these methods combined and performed consistently, day in and day out, can net you close to one hundred thousand coins each week.

Those are all the ways you can farm coins in EA Sports College Football 26 without spending any real cash or getting banned for botting.

Now with College Football 26, that’s especially true. You just can’t beat having 136 lavishly detailed stadiums accompanied by their marching band fight songs. But I’ve always liked the presentation of NCAA more than Madden; what’s tipped the scales this time around are the added immersive features.

One thing I appreciate about EA’s catalog of recent sports games is their insistence on customization. Want pure immersion? Turn up the clock to 15-minute quarters, wear and tear on, and simulated injuries (or just put it on Heisman difficulty). Want an arcadey experience? Well, turn pass slowdown on and manually adjust the hundreds of different gameplay sliders. The Even Teams setting adds a bit of competitive fairness to the playing field by equalizing player stats across the board, eliminating ratings and RPG mechanics entirely, if that is desired. The options are endless for how you want to experience gameday.

"The Even Teams setting adds a bit of competitive fairness to the playing field by equalizing player stats across the board, eliminating ratings and RPG mechanics entirely, if that is desired."

But back to immersion. The player movement and physics feel realistic, yet fair. Playing defense is more viable than in previous EA games thanks to the enhanced tackle variety. You still have your hit stick, bull rush, dive tackles, and ball strip options, but the directional physics add a extra layer of engagement to tackling.

For example, the enhanced animations make it easier to notice when a runningback is protecting the ball or just trucking forward, allowing you to make split-second decision to strip the ball or bull rush. It’s just easier to see what players are doing when each body part is this well-animated—though, of course, it’s not perfect. The realistic physics make it more likely for players to trip and get caught up in heavy traffic, which can result in some funky plays.

On one end zone play, I threw the ball to an open receiver near the left post. He should have caught it, but instead tipped it with a tiny bit of his shoulder pad (which didn’t technically touch the ball, but it counted as the hitbox anyway), causing the ball to float awkwardly atop groups of linebackers only to finally get intercepted. So, yeah, there’s some shoddy hit detection at times, partly due to the complex player movements and physics, but it’s not too noticeable.

Now, I know I haven’t gone too in-depth regarding all the gameplay features and changes, but my overall impression of how it all coalesces together is pretty positive. Throwing feels nice and malleable with the pass leading and strength modifiers, and pre-snap options are expanded and more plentiful than ever.

If you really want to get the most out of the suite of gameplay enhancements, Dynasty Mode returns with even more depth and customization. I went into Dynasty a bit overwhelmed, especially because of all the new transfer portal additions and coach expansions.

I mean, this year’s iteration features realistic portrayals of all the teams’ head coaches, down to their individual archetypes, playbooks, and statistics through the years. The commitment to realism continues with players. Those who follow college football closely will be hard-pressed to find a team without their real-life roster completely intact; and with each player having their own particular suite of Physical and Mental Skills to keep track of, it’s easy to get lost in the micromanagement weeds.

"There’s some shoddy hit detection at times, partly due to the complex player movements and physics, but it’s not too noticeable."

Getting lost in the weeds is welcome in Dynasty, so this added depth is a positive. But if you’re like me and want to get to the action a little more quickly, the option to automate the minutiae of recruiting is always available via the League Settings. I didn’t realize it was possible to automate any of this, so I got a good taste of the recruiting process before finally letting the computer handle that aspect of coaching.

I hit my recruiting limit when I realized I was basically just doing what amounts to repetitive paperwork and I never looked back. The game makes it feel like busywork thanks to the recruiting interface and its lack of convenience. You have to do a series of button presses just to accomplish one action—one out of hundreds that must be met each week during the recruiting phase.

For example, in order to gain the interest of a quality prospect, it’s necessary to first offer a scholarship and then do various little actions like meet with family members, contact through social media, and even schedule a visit before pitching a hard sell. Each action takes up between five to 50 units of time, of which there is a cap of around 700 for the week.

"Players willing to spend time doing these menial tasks have a lot to dig into here with the revamped Transfer Portal and more realistic coaches."

I lament the absence of a bulk action option because individually going into each player’s sub-menu and ticking off these little actions just to get a chance of them committing gives me a micromanagement headache. As someone who was a fan of NFL Head Coach games back in the day, this takes it to another level with its user hostility in interface design. Just add bulk actions and that would fix the assembly-line headache of recruiting by a decent margin.

That said, players willing to spend time doing these menial tasks have a lot to dig into here with the revamped Transfer Portal and more realistic coaches. My time in Dynasty improved drastically when I turned automatic recruiting on and just focused on leveling up my coach and playing games.

The coach tree satisfies the RPG-lover in me without bogging everything down in the weeds. Each coach starts out with a handful of archetype trees containing their own unique abilities to unlock within. Tacticians like Steve Sarkisian of Texas improve their players’ chances to perform well, as well as shake up the opposing team with demoralization debuffs.

What’s more, you can create an entirely unique coach from scratch and set up all the parameters yourself, though I found the default to level 1 a tad difficult to live with in a sea of level 40 coaches. But for those who like a long dynastic journey, starting from scratch might become your obsession.

Speaking of obsession and long journeys, Road to Glory offers a similar kind of experience, albeit with much less micromanagement. I initially appreciated the expanded high school section from last year’s iteration. Playing through senior year (about four games) of your chosen high school helps immerse me in my player’s story and individual progression. Though, I have to say, the execution of these high school games leaves me ambivalent.

The lack of any kind of roster or depth chart with your high school leaves any kind of strategy out of the question. Want to study the opposing team’s strengths and weaknesses? Too bad. I’m guessing every high school team is scaled evenly here, so as to avoid a superstar cornerback from ruining your pass randomly, but either way, the inability to know which players to avoid and which to work with leaves the high school experience almost best left automated.

"The execution of how the Road to Glory mode handles high school games leaves me wanting more."

As much as I tried to love it, the high school section didn’t feel as immersive as it should’ve and actively made me play worse due to the blind strategy involved. Automating these high school games leaves much of the draft out of your hands since game-day performance influences which school will be interested in you. That said, seeing school offers come in after a game felt pretty exciting, and checking off challenges to boost the tape score makes for a fun progression loop.

Once my player made it to one of my schools of choice, Washington State, it was time to impress the coach enough to leave the bench. That’s another fun thing about Road to Glory; you can either start with a five-star player out of the gate or a one-star underdog. Your player’s journey is entirely customizable. Want to make it as realistic and gritty as it can get? Well, start off as a one-star and iron-man it through high school games. Perform badly? Tough luck getting recruited by any notable schools. But there’s always the transfer portal once you gain some experience.

The most fascinating part of my Road to Glory experience was discovering how much I hated my coach’s play-calling. Unlike other modes, you must follow the coach’s limited pool of plays until you’ve gained enough trust with them to call your own shots.

I wasn’t getting any screens or curls whatsoever during game day, leading me to consider transferring to a team whose coaching I gelled with more. If it weren’t for the coach trust mechanic here, I probably wouldn’t have considered transferring. I mean, it’s the local middle-of-the-road school I wanted to build my player’s story off of, and the colors and fight song are great, so why transfer, right?

"The abilities gained from reaching milestones in Weekly Agenda activities encourage a careful balancing act of where to place points."

Another aspect of immersion I rather enjoy is balancing academics, social life, and training. You have a set number of points to put into a weekly agenda. I found myself on the cusp of failing my grade due to a focus on improving leadership and gaining XP from training; after all, I was a freshman with lots to prove. Then right before a test, some classmate asks to join her for an outing.

Of course, I refuse and tarnish my brand by a bit, but my academics evened out from the studying. The abilities gained from reaching milestones in these activities also encourage a careful balancing act of where to place points. Overall, I felt pleased by this year’s Road to Glory mode. It’s got a lot to offer in terms of customization and RPG mechanics, even if the high school section still needs some fleshing out to truly appreciate.

For those looking forward to online play, Ultimate Team is the big returning mode, and as usual, it can be played solo. The way the live service structure functions remains pretty much the same as last year. A rotating selection of events offers various limited-time rewards such as card packs and points upon completion. Building up your team feels as clunky and grindy as ever.

"Opening packs and getting new players feels really stale, lacking the kind of fun flair that overseas gacha games have mastered."

Opening cards and managing depth charts always feels delayed by about half a second. The game even crashed twice on me right as I was grabbing my rewards from challenges. By contrast, playing ball on the field while in UT mode didn’t have these lag issues; it only pervaded my menuing experience. On the presentation end of things, it’s not much better. Opening packs and getting new players feels really stale, lacking the kind of fun flair that overseas gacha games have mastered.

Getting a rare player card should feel special and grandiose with unique animations and sounds, but it’s just the same boring card unveiling (and the cards don’t even look interesting) accompanied by notable load times. All in all, I didn’t bother digging much into this year’s Ultimate Team, mostly due to those issues. But for players who’ve enjoyed pitting their team against friends and engaging in the rotating challenges, it’s more of the same.

Finally, it’s well worth giving game day atmosphere its own discussion before closing the review. Considering the authentic representation of all 136 NCAA FBS teams here, the unique commentary for each freshen up the broadcast experience considerably.

The rotating group of seven commentators remark on recent team successes or failures, talk about each team’s general strengths and weaknesses, and even go into a bit of team history. Of course, if you’re mostly just engaging with a single Dynasty team, you’ll be hearing lots of repeat commentary lines. But thankfully, the commentary attempts to dynamically adjust to how you’ve been playing to vary things up.

"The dynamic lighting and detailed buildings are true to their real-life counterparts."

Hearing Michigan’s wonderfully composed fight song, The Victors, blasting from the marching band after scoring a touchdown always feels special, but it’s especially glorious with this game’s live band recordings. And no game’s college stadiums look better than this. The dynamic lighting and detailed buildings are true to their real-life counterparts. I begun to realize how cool all the little stadium touches are when I played as the Iowa Hawkeyes at home and the camera and commentary focused on the building overlooking the field. Hearing how the players and crowd raise their arms to the children’s hospital up above Kinnick Stadium before each game was some cool real-life stadium lore.

It’s a nice touch that divulges school lore and traditions; and with over a hundred of these, there’s a lot to enjoy. One of this year’s coolest graphical improvements is the dynamic day/night cycle. One of the very few times I gasped in shock at a sports game (when I didn’t fumble the ball or throw an interception, that is) was starting the game during daylight only to notice the sun setting into nighttime in the fourth quarter. That kind of time progression just isn’t noticeable in other sports games that I’ve played, and I certainly didn’t expect such dynamic cycles to be included here.

And of course, the returning hype meter amplifies the home-field experience with the thunderous chants disrupting the away team’s composure. It’s a shame, then, that the new Road to Glory stadium entrances are so quiet and devoid of sound. Where’s the thunderous cheering and band noise? Where’s the player banter while storming onto the field? There’s an issue with audio balance in RtG entrances that desperately needs attention, and it’s something I didn’t notice elsewhere. But overall, I simply adore the rich on-field presentation of this year’s NCAA title, even if Road to Glory entrances need some major work.

"I simply adore the rich on-field presentation of this year’s NCAA title, even if Road to Glory entrances need some major work."

As a holistic package, College Football 26 supplies what fans of the series want, improving upon the previous iteration in meaningful ways. It’s not a perfect package, considering the clunky recruiting interface in Dynasty or Ultimate Team’s terrible menu lag, but these issues can be mostly be overlooked.

The school pageantry adds a ton of flair to the football experience, helping it stand out from the more muted and stale Madden sibling. And I’d dare say the rich wealth of teams and unique coaches and players make for a more replayable and deep experience than other sports games on the market. Despite the obvious growing pains with the rebooted series’ sophomore year, College Football 26 is a winner.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.

That’s because the studio refused to rest on its laurels, choosing to bring a whole lot of meaningful additions to EA Sports College Football 26 that are all set to make it feel more authentic, responsive, and just way more engaging than its predecessor.

Let’s take a look at a few of these additions that you should know about before you decide to dive in for yourself and see what the fuss is all about.

#14: Your Custom Teams Carry Over

If you’ve poured a lot of time and effort into building a dream team in College Football 25, there’s good news! You have the option of importing your teams directly from the Team Builder menu with the option to apply the new game’s features to make them ready to go in just a few clicks.

That’s a great option for players looking to put their best foot forward right from the get go and a showcase of EA’s determination to make College Football 26 even better than its predecessor.

#13: A New Road to Glory Mode

EA’s bringing over one of Madden 26’s best features with its Road to Glory Mode all set to bring a layer of realism to College Football 26. You begin as a high school recruit and must climb up the ranks while building your highlight tape with the aim of being offered a scholarship with the team of your choice.

Earn the trust of managers and build a rapport with your teammates, with each decision having an impact on your journey from rags to riches. You could choose to commit to a team that you think is a great fit, or keep your options open and even decommit if you believe your interests are better served elsewhere. It’s all in your hands, just as it would be in the real world.

#12: Road to Glory Has A Hat Ceremony

For those who wish to undertake the ultimate student to athlete journey, the Road to Glory option lets you choose between 10 new archetypes and take on the challenge of going from a high school recruit to the top of your game as you reach for Heisman glory.

Rising up the ranks and achieving objectives could lead to your very own hat ceremony, letting you keep potential managers trying to guess your intentions until the very moment you decide to pick a hat to make your own. It’s time to decide what’s best for your career in a way that’s both exciting and immersive.

#11: The Road to CFP Mode Returns

If you were a fan of last year’s College Football Playoffs mode, you’ll be happy to know that the online mode that pits you against other ranked teams is making a triumphant comeback to College Football 26. 

Getting the chance to compete for the National Championship Trophy is no walk in the park, though. You will have to bring your best team and your A-game to the pitch if you hope to take on other online opponents and make your way up a very competitive ladder in EA’s take on playoffs.

That’s because beating higher tier teams is the best way to improve your own ranking but be ready for a challenge as your opponents will be sure to try their best to send you packing!

#10: A More Realistic Transfer Portal System

EA is bringing sweeping changes to the Transfer Portal System from the previous game, making it reflect the real-world in order to improve your experience. The addition of features like Dynamic Dealbreakers, improvements of Playing Time logic, Conference Prestige Dealbreakers, and so much more, the new Transfer Portal could very well be among College Football 26’s most exciting additions.

What’s more, a customization option that presents a rather deep level of control over max transfers per team and transfer probability for both your own team and CPU-controlled ones lets you tweak it to your liking and fine-tune the experience to match your own preferences.

#9: New Recruiting Traits and Deal Breakers

For players who like to manage their rosters and sustain their players’ effectiveness on the pitch, new Recruiting Traits and Deal Breakers are being added to the game to make the experience more attuned to what a coach would have to face in the real world.

With time and distance being a factor along with a host of other additions, managing your recruiting process is going to add a layer of realism and new challenges in putting together a set of players that your opponents would hesitate to take on.

#8: Dynamic Play Calling

No one likes to hit pause on the action, especially in nail-biting games that could mean a chance to improve your standing or a defeat that could ruin your plans for the team that you painstakingly assembled.

In College Football 26, A new Dynamic Play Calling mechanic means that you won’t have to fiddle with menus, interrupting your fun just to ensure that your teammates behave as you intend. Instead, you can now substitute players, switch up plays, and manage their fatigue levels all while pressurizing your opponents on the fly.

It’s a change that could transform the experience that College Football 25 offered while also allowing you to make the most of the new and improved playbook and a Wear and Tear system that’s a lot more realistic this time around.

#7: Custom Defensive Zones

For College Football 25 players who lamented its limited defensive options, EA has listened to their feedback and brought additional defensive options to the pitch in its latest outing. A New Physics-based Tackling System is poised to work well with the ability to use different abilities between passes with your left stick that you earn through good blocking and shutting down your opponent’s plays.

What’s more, a plethora of new ways to fine-tune your defenses are making their way to the game, enabling you and your opponents to really take the fight to the other side. The best offense is a good defense, after all.

#6: Expanded Coaching Skill Trees

Working in tandem with the new Recruiting Traits and Deal Breakers is a new and improved coaching system that is all set to make you think long and hard about how you set about managing your teams and bringing in new talent to your roster.

You will need to think carefully about your staff and players, with location-based visits actively taking up time and effort on your part while building up an elite group of support staff directly impacts how your players are able to perform on the field. You’re going to need every advantage you can get with the new dynamic Stadium Pulse mechanic and the way in which it impacts your players’ confidence when a game is in action.

#5: Online Dynasty Cross-Play Support

Taking an already excellent Dynasty Mode to new heights is the addition of cross-play support, allowing you to truly cement your legacy as a coach who will be remembered for years to come.

With the ability to run Dynasty Mode with up to 32 other players irrespective of the platform you are playing on while the Members tab lets you keep track of their own progress, being a coach to one of the best teams out there is going to get a lot more realistic.

While cross-play in Dynasty Mode is enabled by default, you do have the option of turning it off using the Commissioner in League Settings if you decide to stay on your platform of choice.

#4: Cross-Platform Leaderboards

Cross-play isn’t just restricted to the game’s Dynasty Mode but has now made its way to all of College Football 26’s other online modes as well!

A global leaderboard lets you see where you stand and measure up your team’s strength against the best of the best across all platforms across the world. But if that’s not to your liking, the option to opt out of it and stick to the leaderboards for the platform you’re playing on is always an option!

#3: The Trophy Room is Back

EA is clearly paying attention to what its players want after the success it enjoyed when it brought back the College Football franchise last year. Among its additions based on the feedback it received is the return of the Trophy Room, allowing you to enjoy the bragging rights you earn from your wins by earning shiny trophies that you can then display for everyone to see.

With multiple ways to earn those trophies and a lot of space to display them, it’s time to get your collection going and let your success on the pitch do the talking for your friends and rivals alike.

#2: Protected Opponents in Online Dynasty

With sweeping changes to Conference Scheduling comes the ability to set Protected Opponents, allowing you to ensure that your favorite teams duke it out irrespective of how the season’s Big Ten Alignments play out.

Custom Conferences let you select up to two Protected Opponents with a few simple clicks, or simply let the game do all the heavy lifting for you at the press of a button.

#1: The New Coach Trust System

Building trust with your team as a coach, or selecting the best coach for your path to an NFL draft is now a very important part of your progress. EA is giving its players a lot of options when it comes to defining their own path, bringing a level of freedom to College Football 26 that its predecessor cannot hope to match.

The Coach Trust mechanic is sure to add a few wrinkles to your plans for any teams you create, or perhaps influence how your choices in Dynasty Mode affect your players. It’s another layer of realism to a game that seems hell-bent on replicating the college football experience that a player is likely to encounter in the real world.

EA is sure to be as excited as its players when College Football 26 launches on July 10, 2025 for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. We will have to wait and see if its new additions are as well received as its return to a long-forgotten franchise last year.

But if these new changes are any indication, the studio has another banger on its hands, and College Football fans are in for an absolute treat!

Improved realism

First up is a generalised overview of EA Sports’ approach to upgrading College Football 25; every change they’ve made is in service to improving realism. This we see in gameplay more varied and authentic over last year thanks to expanded plays, new athlete archetypes and abilities, streamlined blocking and coverage systems, and dynamic substitutions, all underscored by an enhanced gameday atmosphere which, despite being a standout feature last year, has been ramped up by intensifying games between rivals, and blasting hype songs and stadium-specific music.

Expanded playbook

College Football 25 featured a raft of unique plays encompassing offensive and defensive strategy, mixed with player and team-wide abilities. This year, playbooks available – provided via the team coach’s distinct style and philosophy – to College Football players have been greatly expanded. Lightning quick, wide open gameplay continues to be the game’s foundation, but College Football 26’s moment-to-moment action is now supported by 2,800 new plays – totalling 300-plus more than last year – across more than 45 new formations; highly tweakable option and motion types, plus offbeat, unpredictable plays can inject your personality into every play.

Enhanced blocking and coverage

EA heard feedback that defense play last year was oftentimes too challenging, so for College Football 26 tackling has been made more approachable via an upgraded Physics Based Tackling System. New tackle types won’t only present crunching visual feedback but they’ll feel better too, whilst timing based skill mechanics provide more tools to control the field of play. Enhancements to blocking are, in EA’s words, set to reward players’ left-stick skills between tackles whilst defensive linemen can now steer their opposition in whichever direction they choose to break up offensive plays. Beyond this, improved coverage via custom zones allow defensive lines to dial-in coverage at the scrimmage.

Real-world coaches now feature

Almost every real-world head coach, offensive, and defensive coordinator – the ones who signed up to provide their likeness, that is, numbering more than 300 – will maraude the touchline in College Football 26. This isn’t just an attempt at making things look more real, although it certainly contributes. No, see, coaches bring their own distinctive playstyles to the field, allowing players to strategise via unique those aforesaid new playbooks – inspired by their real-life program identities – to hopefully bring newfound authenticity to the game’s coaching experience.

New athlete archetypes

Archetypes in EA Sports’ College Football govern and grade unique attributes and abilities for athletes playing in certain positions. For 26, archetypes have been overhauled to encompass a wider range of unique skill sets which – according to EA – more closely approximate the skills fans expect to see from NFL stars of tomorrow every gameday. In total, 10 new archetypes have been added which can be chosen from the outset of a new career.

New athlete abilities

Diversifying gameplay further is a swathe of new player abilities, rebalanced and expanded now to total 84. In addition to the innovations and improvements already mentioned – the enhanced blocking and new tackles types via improved physics-based tackling – offensive line athletes now have access to fresh stunts and twists allowing players to optimise their pass rush on the fly. The way abilities scale has improved too; when athletes are on a hot streak their physical status maxes out, transforming platinum tier abilities to the new, more powerful Heisman tier.

Field vision

The new field vision system introduces a realistic perspective on a quarterback’s point of view, providing yet another element of realism the dev team are striving for. In this system shorter quarterbacks, for instance, will have their field of view disrupted by taller linemen, with receiver icons fading as they stride in and out of view between surrounding opposition.

High School Mode returns

A revered part of the old NCAA series absent last year, High School Mode is returning in 26’s Road to Glory. Encompassing approximately an hour’s worth of gameplay, High School Mode bridges the fledgling career of your custom student-athlete’s with, hopefully, obtaining a scholarship to college. Completing in-game tasks and challenges is how you’ll notch up points – completing certain pass types or specific number of tackles, that sort of thing – with enough points leading to a scholarship offer over the five week High School season. Points thresholds do differ between schools – of which 10 are available to choose – as well as your chosen star rating rising or falling depending on challenge success.

Dynasty Mode cross-play now a feature

With decision-making control over recruitment, staff, in-game strategies, playbooks, et cetera, Dynasty Mode continues to be the best way to become a high-flying College Football coach. A massive addition to this year’s entry is the ability to now play Dynasty Mode in cross-play, supported across Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5.

Formation subs

A community requested feature comes in the form of formation substitutions. From the pause menu, players can access different formations and athlete combinations to support specific lineups and plays, such as defining a slot receiver in an offensive set. The system is supposed to be intuitive too, giving players strategic ability to automatically manage and swap their on-field roster based on playbook demands, fatigue, or Wear and Tear.

Dynamic subs

Another requested feature now present: dynamic substitutions grant players a chance to switch on-field individuals on the fly via a D-pad activated menu. These swift, real-time adjustments maintain the breakneck pace of College Football, something which was scuppered by last year’s system. Dynamic subs can be enacted in response to fatiguing players and dwindling ratings, all visible via a heads-up status screen. Auto-sub settings are also configurable for each position, set to react once a player hits a certain level of Wear and Tear.

Improved presentation

Gameday atmosphere was a well-received feature in College Football 25, but EA Sports have still found room for improvement. Saturday atmosphere will be even more anthemic, reflecting the passion, tradition, and unique pageantry of College Football in more exciting ways via new, highly detailed mascots, 160 new school-specific chants, 10 stadium-blasting PA tracks – including Metallica’s ‘Enter Sandman’ and the pounding drum theme to 2001: A Space Odyssey – and more dynamic commentary. Even the marching band covers soundtracking College Football 25’s menus have been expanded to include fight songs from campuses across the US.

Enhanced Stadium Pulse effects

Maximising gameday atmosphere further in what EA dub Home Field Advantage 2.0: enhanced Stadium Pulse effects in the shape of more intense camera shake, clock distortion, and pronounced visual displays, intending to replicate the pressure of playing a hostile road game more so than last year. Furthermore, high stakes games and bitter rivalries affect Stadium Pulse even more, with Confidence and Composure available to visiting teams to counteract rattling home fan aggression.

More realistic Wear and Tear

Advances to College Football’s Wear and Tear system are another nod to 26’s realism. To remind you, Wear and Tear is the game’s attempt at portraying athlete fatigue and injury, which goes on to affect performance in-game. For College Football 26 this system has received enhancements which, in addition to presenting these symptoms more authentically, can last an entire season. Due to this, the aforesaid dynamic substitutions become a much more important consideration to use strategically. Pre-snap animations – another new feature – give visual clues and feedback as to an athlete’s on-field condition. 

Graphical improvements

This point doesn’t represent a significant overhaul, but graphically College Football 26 has seen the addition of dynamic lighting, with the sun’s glow and stadium lighting more closely approximating time of day. Dusk, sunset, night time, all should look more true to life than last year’s edition if implemented well.

It’s taking things even further for the latter with Regional Time of Day. As Brandt notes, “A 6 PM kickoff in Chestnut Hill will look different from a 6 PM kickoff in Austin, reflecting each location’s unique lighting.” There’s also Seasonal Time of Day, with days ending sooner in months like November than in September.

Pageantry is another major area of improvement with better runouts that will now change depending on the occasion. Epic Runouts include light shows, drones and other production highlights for high-stakes games. You can expect unique light shows for teams like Alabama, Auburn, Georgia, Nebraska, South Carolina, Tennessee, NC State, Georgia Tech, North Carolina, Texas State, UCF, Boston College, Notre Dame, Rutgers, and UCLA, each tailored towards their colors and identity.

You also have Standard Runouts (which also offer much pageantry), Quick Runouts, and Road to Glory Runouts, which offer a “more personal view where you are actually in the runout from tunnel to running across the field.” The camera is player-controlled in this case, allowing you to look at the crowds with the right stick.

And if all that isn’t enough, the roster of mascots has been significantly expanded, with dozens more joining. EA Sports College Football 26 launches on July 10th for Xbox Series X/S and PS5.

There are over 2,800 new plays this time around and more than 45 new formations alongside 10 new Archetypes. The total number of abilities is raised to 84, with existing options rebalanced. Furthermore, they’ll scale based on a player’s performance. If that wasn’t enough, a hot player can upgrade their Platinum tier abilities to Heisman tier, where they can effectively take over the game.

Other notable features include Dynamic Substitutions that won’t interrupt the flow of the game, new Block Steering to direct your blocking, and 12 types of Stunts for diversifying your control and pass rush.

EA Sports College Football 26 launches on July 10th for Xbox Series X/S and PS5. Head here for more details.

Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown

Developer KT Racing’s most ambitious title to date has landed Test Drive Unlimited Solar Crown a place on this rundown despite an onslaught of issues resulting predominantly from it’s always-online requirement. First, the good: Solar Crown’s Hong Kong open world is consistently complex and interesting, and the car feel – whilst not perfect – is a step up from Test Drive Unlimited 2. The bad however outweighs the good: time wasting bugs, server issues even when racing solely against AI, and inconsistent, non-adjustable difficulty settings makes Solar Crown a racer steeped in promise but with much to fix.

Circana analyst Mat Piscatella recently took to BlueSky and revealed that EA Sports College Football 25 has now become the best-selling sports game of all time in the United States. Earlier this year, it was announced that the game had become the best-selling football game in US history, so the milestones clearly keep coming at a steady clip for College Football. 

Currently, EA Sports College Football 25 is also the best-selling game of the year in the US, though it should be interesting to see whether it can hold on to that position until the very end of the year. 

EA Sports College Football 25 is available on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The game had crossed 5 million players in its first week. Read our review of the title through here.

SMU, Ken State, Washington State, Florida Atlantic, and more have updated uniform pieces for the 2024 season. Nissan Stadium is available as a new stadium, and you can also look forward to updated ratings for players and Overall Team Rankings. However, the latter only applies to Play Now and Road to College Football Playoffs.

Check out all the changes below, including balance changes and bug fixes. EA Sports College Football 25 is available for Xbox Series X/S and PS5. It crossed five million players in its first week and has since become the best-selling football game in the United States ever. Head here for our review of the launch version.

Title Update Notes

GAMEPLAY

General

• Refreshed the Ability Loadouts of players in Front End Rosters.

DEV NOTE: These ability changes are based on current player performance this season and changes to their ratings. We focused on the Top 25 teams in the game and their players. This will result in players like Ashton Jeanty receiving an upgrade to his abilities. Make sure to check out your favorite players to see if they have had any changes!

• Reduced the frequency of pitches out of tackles missing the pitch back.
• Fixed aftershock ability inappropriately triggering on blocks.

Alignment

• Fixed an issue where using a Cover 3 Shell on a Cover 1 Blitz play vs Empty Base Flex or Trio would result in the Tight End being left open.
• Fixed an issue where using a Two High Coverage Shell (Cover 2, Cover 4, etc.) on Nickel Over Double Bracket would cause the defense to align in a single high safety look.
• Fixed an issue where using a Cover 2 Coverage Shell on a Cover 1 play would result in the Tight End being left unguarded.
• Fixed an issue where using a Cover 0 Coverage Shell on Cover 2 Man vs Empty Base, Empty Chip, or Empty Quads would result in the inside receiver being left unguarded.

Coverage

• Added Box Call logic to Cover 4 Quarters and Cover 4 Palms to better Cover Bunch Formation route combinations.

DEV NOTE: Box Call logic will dictate which eligible receiver a defender picks up/matches on. This is especially effective against Bunch and will have defenders in the best position to cover their assignments. Deep Zone, Quarter Flat, and 3 Rec Hook defenders will coordinate to make sure all eligible receivers are picked up.

• Fixed an issue where giving a Safety on the left side of the field the Outside Third L Defensive Hot Route would assign him to play outside third on the other side of the field.
• Fixed an issue where some press animations would press the receiver 10 yards down the field.

Pass Blocking

• Addressed an issue where using the Defensive Linemen Slant Inside Command would cause defenders to rush into the same gap.
• Changed the functionality of Defensive Linemen Shifts on Double A Gap defensive formations to eliminate unrealistic alignments.
• Fixed an issue where Pass Block targeting lines were not appearing when the user would enter Pass Block adjustments.
• Added new logic for Defenders to no longer be able to instantly disengage to the outside if they are given the Slant Inside D-Line Adjustment pre-snap.

Settings & UI

• Fixed the issue where users would not get any clock run off with Accelerated Clock turned ON for Online Head-to-Head Ranked Games.
• Fixed an issue where the Switch Stick delay setting that a user would set would not stick once the user changed the menu.

DYNASTY

• Fixed an issue with the Power lineman archetype where they would not progress Pass Block Finesse.
• Updated Bryant-Denny Stadium to be Saban Field at Bryant-Denny Stadium.
• Fixed an issue where the prospect list performed a full refresh every time a recruit is targeted.
• Various news story fixes.
• Resolved an issue preventing custom schedules from working properly.
• Fixed an issue with how weights were displayed in the Team Needs screen.
• Fixed an issue where the free practice tile would not always appear in the Dynasty Hub.
• Fixed an issue where you could not super sim from the play calling screen when playing as a coordinator.
• Increased the amount of wear and tear damaged body parts recover on week advance.
• When viewing a recruit in the recruiting board, you are now able to change which recruit you are looking at by going up/down on the right stick.

COLLEGE ULTIMATE TEAM

• Included Play A Friend as a playable mode.
• Increased AP limit to 12 for Season 3
• Increased the AP cost of ‘Aftershock’ from 2 AP to 5 AP. Having 4 Defensive Linemen with Aftershock is no more.
• Fixed issues that were causing the following combinations to be unplayable in Lineups:
• – Warren Sapp and Booger Mcfarland
  – Brian Bosworth and Payton WIlson
  – Tavon Austin and Kamdyn Benjamin
• Players can now have both a Travis Hunter WR and Travis Hunter CB in your lineup at once.
• Fixed player appearances in silhouettes.
• Nissan stadium is now the default stadium for Playstation tournaments.
• Fixed a crash that was occurring when reaching gameplay after changing your favorite team within your profile.
• Fixed stability issues that were causing long load times in Menus after users navigated to the Item Binder.
• Fixed an issue with the ‘Open Next Pack’ functionality.
• Promoting to Starter from the Item Detail View no longer duplicates the player’s name on the screen.
• ‘In Lineup’ tags are no longer added on player items that are not in your lineup when flipping them in the item binder.
• Fixed an issue with the Live Events Tab that caused the screen to flicker after navigating around.
• Fixed overlap text on the Auction Details Screen .
• Fixed scaling issue that was occurring in the Catalog after selecting ‘Find this Item’ from Sets.
• Increased the size of the NAT, BND, and LTD labels that may appear on Player Items.
• Position names no longer overlap with the lineup tabs on the Lineup Screen.
• Viewing the back of a Player Item in a Fantasy Pack and advancing to the next round no longer causes attributes of the previously viewed item to appear instead of the correct items attributes.
• Cleaned up overlapping text with Pack offers in Stores.
• Stars within a Challenge Sequence and Milestone screen are now displaying correctly.
• Selecting a wildcard slot in any set no longer allows you to choose from any player in your collection. Previously, users would select a player and then receive a server error afterwards.

ROAD TO GLORY

Various scenario fixes

• Removing a rogue pickup basketball scenario that triggers multiple times for some players.

PRESENTATION AND UI UPDATES

• Added uniform pieces for: Florida State, SMU, UCF, Texas State, Ole Miss, UNLV, Illinois, Miami, Oregon State, Cal, Old Dominion, Toledo, Oregon, Texas A&M, UTSA, James Madison, Colorado, Arizona State, Stanford, ULM, Texas Tech, FIU, Utah, Mississippi State, Air Force, BYU, North Texas, Louisiana Tech, Minnesota, WKU, WKU, South Alabama, Rice, NMSU, Miami OH, San Jose State, Arizona, TCU, Houston, Georgia Tech, UTSA.
• Updated pre-existing uniform pieces for 2024 season: SMU, Kent State, New Mexico, Washington State, Ohio State, Florida Atlantic.
• Introducing 718 new NIL Players.
• Competition Nissan Stadium has been added to the game.
• Additional Ratings Updates for players. Updated Overall Team Rankings.

DEV NOTE: These ranking changes are exclusive to Play Now and Road to College Football Playoffs.

TEAM BUILDER

• Introducing Adobe Express Integration for Team Builder.

DEV NOTE: Team Builder is getting an upgrade! We’re excited to announce a new partnership with our friends from Adobe. Adobe Express, a content and design generation tool, is now integrated as an optional feature into Team Builder, allowing you to express your creativity and customize your experience in more ways than ever. To utilize the tool, head to your logos page and click “Create with Adobe Express.” Simply create an Adobe account or login with an existing one to instantly access up to 25 credits to use towards logo generation OR design from scratch with the powerful design elements built into Express. Design away and then click “Save” in the Adobe Express tool to get back to Team Builder, importing your new custom image into your Logos page. From there, you can apply your custom layers to your stadium, uniforms, and more.