Headlines

The reveal trailer for College Football 26 and Madden NFL 26 featured the connection in Road to Glory to Superstar Mode and Friday's video deep dive and blog fully revealed how so.

Check out the CFB 26 Road to Glory blog here and Madden NFL 26 Superstar Mode blog here.

Continue on to see the trailer. ...

Following Tuesday's College Football 26 Dynasty & Team Builder Deep Dive, EA announced the Top 25 Toughest Places to Play (TPTP).

While the Top 25 TPTP lacked the ensuing conversation the CFB 25 reveal did - Texas A&M at #1?!? - it isn't without controversy.....the list is the exact same as the one EA quietly added into an early season title update for CFB 25.

As noted by Operation Sports at the time, an August 29, 2024 Title Update for CFB 25 updated the TPTP, putting LSU at #1 and dropping Texas A&M all the way to #11, among other changes. This change was not noted or announced by EA. (LSU was believed to be the #1 TPTP based on pre-release content until the EA reveal. Some believed the list was altered for marketing reasons then reverted back to proper form in the silent update.)

While the TPTP will always draw some fan debate and ire, the most valid complaints are likely among schools who just missed the ranking.

In CFB 25, Arkansas, Boise State, and Virginia Tech dropped out of the Top 25 in the silent update. All three finished with winning home records in 2024, including Boise State's 7-0 record. #25 Mississippi State went 2-5 and #23 Oklahoma State went just 2-4, yet both remain in the Top 25 TPTP.

Continue on to see the Top 25 Toughest Places to Play in College Football 26 - barring any silent update - and teams that should be in consideration. ...

Following the news last March that the majority of the National Football Awards Association's members would be opting out of CFB 25, the success of the title appears to have reversed that stance for College Football 26.

Per the CFB 26 Dynasty Deep Dive, beta leaks, and MUTLeaks, 14 authentic awards are being added to the game. From the Dynasty blog: "Speaking of awards, in College Football 26 we’ve added 14 authentic awards, including the Maxwell Award and the Walter Camp Award."

This leaves two in-game awards as generics: Edge Rusher of the Year (Ted Hendricks Award) and Returner of the Year (The Jet Award). Neither of these awards are members of the NFAA.

Continue on to see the list of seasonal Dynasty awards that players can earn towards their Trophy Room. ...

College Football 26 has released a deep dive video and a lengthy blog detailing the vast improvements and changes coming to Dynasty Mode and Team Builder.

Among the highlights: More/improved Portal movement (led by all players possessing a DealBreaker), improved Carousel logic, new Wear & Tear settings, and improved recruit generation.

Continue on to see the Dynasty deep dive video and a TGT summary of the improvements coming to Dynasty Mode and Road to Glory. ...

Today's EA SPORTS College Football 26 Deep Dive focuses on Presentation.

Written by Design Director Christian Brandt and Audio Producer Torsten Staley, the lengthy blog details improvements to visuals, mascots, entrances, team traditions, audio, commentary, and more.

Among the highlights:

• Dynamic Time of Day is in the game, features Regional and Seasonal aspects
• Tiered Runouts: Epic (night game, big matchup), Standard (see CFB 25), Quick, and Road to Glory (player POV, able to look around)
• Light Shows and Drone Shows for select programs/runouts
• ~37 new costumed mascots, including the Pop-Tarts Bowl mascot
• Additional Touchdown & Turnover Traditions + more Rivalry Game trophies
• Ability to import custom TeamBuilder squads for RTG
• 1,700+ new heads for secondary characters
• Fights songs and marching band covers join the drumline in the game menus

Despite the wide range of topics covered, several major community questions remain: What new player equipment was added? New camera angles have been teased - what has been added? Will Chris Fowler's commentary (namely emotion) be improved in CFB 26?

Continue on to see the lengthy developer blog. ...

The EA SPORTS College Football 26 Gameplay Deep Dive video and blog are now available.

The lengthy blog covers a wide array of gameplay features and improvements coming to the title, many of which only brief descriptions were known before.

Continue on to see the video and link to the blog. ...

If you plan on competing online in College Football 26, check out CFB Showdown.

Spearheaded by longtime friend of the community, Shopmaster, CFB Showdown is a free competitive platform to allow users to track results, see community leaderboards, establish rivals, earn trophies, play in post-season tournaments, and more.

Joining the TGT community specifically will give users an exclusive community trophy and the ability to compete on the Community Leaderboard.

Signing up now will give users the ability to give feedback to help shape and improve the experience before launch.

Join here: https://t.co/hWj0KLG7wd ...

Through FOIA requests, cllct has learned that College Football 26 will utilize a new royalty structure in paying programs: “For each CFB product released by EA SPORTS, we (CLC Learfield) will provide a percentage for each institution based on the games played for that institution as a percentage of the total games played across all institutions. This percentage of games played will become the final allocation percentage for each school that will be applied to the total gross royalties for all institutions received.”

Continue on to read an excerpt of the article from cllct and Matt Liberman. ...

The EA SPORTS College Football 26 Closed Beta is now underway, from June 6 to June 8. Included in the Beta is Online Dynasty and Road to the College Football Playoff.

It is unclear what the criteria was to be invited into the College Football 26 Closed Beta outside of Madden VIPs and per @CFBDirect: "the majority of invites went out to the most engaged CFB players." The popular community belief is that a percentage of users with a high number of hours played were extended invites. The lack of clarity combined with many 'engaged CFB players' not getting an invite led to a negative perception of the event by some in the community.

While the blog stated that users "must refrain from recording, streaming and/or capturing any portion of the closed beta ... [They] also must not post videos, thoughts, discussions, screenshots or stream the closed beta on social media or the Internet," numerous users did exactly that. Early on Friday afternoon, some images were removed from r/NCAAFBseries, for example, but by evening screens and details were readily available across social media. On3 even shared out a night game opening for LSU-Alabama from a user that had been sharing content all afternoon with no ban or block from EA.

The end-goal of the Closed Beta also seemed unclear. While the Closed Beta Details blog listed feedback methodology and requests, two College Football 26 developers shared that the Beta is an older build and the goal was to mainly stress test servers. Continue on to see the Closed Beta details per EA. ...