EA SPORTS College Football 25 was the long-awaited return of a beloved franchise after a decade-long hiatus. The game harkened back to the glory days of playing college football on the couch with friends and is one of the best sports games of 2024. While it had plenty of great things to offer for fans, there is still plenty to do in the next iteration to keep the franchise fresh in a new era of college football. Here is what I want to see in EA SPORTS College Football 26 to make the series even better.
Bring Back The Mascots
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Let’s start with a more fun one, Mascot Mode. One of the best parts of college football is the mascots. Mascot Mode was a feature in older versions of the game that allowed players to play an entire football game but play as the school mascots instead of the real players. This is one of the more creative and fun modes in any sports game, and the fact that it was missing in EA SPORTS College Football 25 was a huge bummer. Bringing it back for College Football 26 would be a nice way to throw players a bone with a fun, whacky game mode to enjoy.
Missing Dynasty Mode Features
EA needed to get the dynasty mode right in EA SPORTS College Football 25, and they mostly did. The game’s features work well, for the most part, but several features from the older games were not added back. Features like viewing player stats and tracking award winners and their in-season numbers might not sound important, but diehard players sorely missed out on that information.
Recruiting also needs a bit of an overhaul. The system in EA SPORTS College Football 25 was easy to understand and did have some more advanced features, but it was missing important ones like a recruiting pipeline map. Streamlining the recruiting process is excellent for players who might not know what they are doing, but taking away in-depth options that players lean on was a disappointment.
Improved Gameday Experience
The in-game atmosphere does an incredible job of bringing the feel of college football to life, but there is still room to grow. One small addition would be dynamic weather. Having a game start at 4 pm could see the weather get darker as the game goes on and nighttime approaches. A more detailed crowd would also make the gameday experience feel more lifelike.
One of my biggest complaints as a marching band nerd is that the bands shown in pre-game are often “marching” entirely out of time, and in the stands during the game, they look shockingly bad. Tweaking all of this to improve the gameday atmosphere would take an already excellent setting and make it truly incredible.
Better Tutorials
Players would be forgiven if they did not know EA SPORTS College Football 25 had a tutorial. There are so many new systems to learn, and the game does not really explain them well or allow players to practice them easily. The existing tutorials are currently buried in Ultimate Team, meaning most players might never see them and try them out. Moving these to the main screen or even prompting players to check them out when they first boot up the game would be greatly appreciated.
No More Ultimate Team
This one is never going to happen, but it would be nice to see Ultimate Team eventually go away in the College Football series. It is EA’s cash cow and brings in tons of dough, but the resources spent working on Ultimate Team would be better spent improving the Dynasty and Career modes instead. Plus, the gambling aspect with packs is predatory, and we could do with a de-emphasis on modes like that in video games.
There you have it. Here are just a few suggestions for EA SPORTS College Football 26 that would help make an already great franchise even better. Have any additions you’d like to see? Let us know!
