It’s not rare for me to tear up when I watch a thing, but for trailers, I can count those on one hand. It’s why the EA Sports College Football 27 trailer took me by surprise. Yeah, CFB 27 made me emotional. Growing up, football was everything. It was how I connected with my dad, a common language that he taught me life through. When I was angry, he’d grab a ball, take me out front, and we’d say nothing, just throw.
When I got into the University of Texas, it was a lifelong dream. My dad had injured himself, a two-way lineman, taking on more than he could; his knee gave out. So his dreams were cut short. But what I’ve learned over the years of talking to my dad about football is that he knew he was never going to go pro. But his biggest regret in life is not making it to college, not making it onto the gridiron in burnt orange and white in the heat of the Texas Saturday sun.
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While the SEC may say that “it just means more,” the reality is that college football itself just means more, regardless of the conference or if a school is D1, D2, FBS, or FCS. Whether in a small town surrounded by cornfields with hopes of making it to Lincoln, Nebraska, or in the bustling capital of Texas, there is a hope that comes with the sport that has become harder and harder to see as NIL contracts get larger and players move almost every year.
The CFB 27 trailer captures what makes college football great.
Sitting in EA Sports Opening Drive, I didn’t expect what the trailer showed. I had already played a few games as we waited and seen the digital preview earlier in the week. And then I saw Coach Curt Cignetti, I heard the song in the background, and saw my team on screen. Somehow, in all of the ugliness that college sports fans are having to deal with as students get priced out of their own games and tuition rises, CFB 27 captured that hope that so many of us are still clinging to.
Despite Cignetti’s wonderful rendition of the grumpy cat meme, which only let up once the Natty was in his hands, there is no team more hopeful than the Indiana Hoosiers. Coming from a coaching family, Curt Cignetti left an assistant coaching job under Nick Saban at Bama. He gave up that spotlight to forge his own path, which eventually led him to James Madison University, where he led the team to consecutive winning seasons.
When he took over the Head Coaching position at Indiana University in the 2023-2024 season, Cignetti inherited a program known as the losingest in the sport. The Hoosiers did basketball, not football. In his first season, Coach Cig took the team to an 11-2 season.
It was an astonishing feat, but one that ended when Notre Dame eliminated the team from the playoffs. If he had stopped there, Cignetti still would have gone down in coaching history for turning around a program in year one. But he didn’t. Because Curt Cignetti wins.
Using the transfer portal to target three-star talent that people had forgotten or were deemed too old to be beneficial to a team, Cignetti’s Hoosiers were a team of misfits, to say the least. And still, he valued “production over potential” and dedication, taking most of his JMU Starters with him and developing others. When asked about why he chose Fernando Mendoza as his QB1, when Mark Cuban’s 60 million donation to the school could have bought him close to any “top prospect,” Cignetti is on record saying:
“The talent was unmistakable,” he said. “He was a playmaker. He played on a team that was in a lot of close games but fell short and took a lot of sacks—41 sacks, I think. But patience in the pocket, footwork, and those kinds of things needed to be developed once he was here, but the talent was unmistakable. And we had his younger brother, so I understood how he grew up, and it’s a family of high achievers. He wanted to be developed.”
In a time where schools are going a billion dollars in debt to acquire talent or taking taxpayer money to make ridiculous NIL offers, Cignetti looked smaller. To be clear, he still used Cuban’s NIL treasure chest, but it’s how he did it that spoke to something larger than just the reason someone was on the field, and to what they were doing on it head-on. Production over potential.
With that, he made college football history, taking the Hoosiers to a 16-0 perfect season, crushing the greats like Bama and Nike-funded programs like Oregon underfoot. Doing the impossible, Cignetti ignited the college football world with a hope that felt like it was draining away with every deal announcement and lawsuit that plagued the top programs across the country.
EA Sports doesn’t ignore the impact money has had on football.
Curt Cignetti exemplified the path that many Dynasty players take in EA Sports’ game. Take the 1.5 Star school and grow it into a dynasty. Take chances on recruits, develop them, and establish a legacy. So it was no surprise when he graced the cover of CFB 27’s Deluxe Edition, the half-smile staring up at the person picking up the case.
Cignetti’s history in recruiting is what is alive in the CFB 27 trailer, and as much as Cignetti’s style has preserved an element of the coaching that NIL is trying to kill, College Football as a video game is a way for us to capture our own spark. The game itself has been pivotal for me in embracing the finer points of the sport, one that I have never been able to play, for obvious reasons. But when I turn it on, I’m there, on the field, making my team great.
With Zack Bryan’s “Revival” in the background, it’s the right mix of country and folk that speaks to the small-town hope that has driven players from the plains to the mountains across the country to reach. But even then, it’s Cignetti’s narration that captures the spirit of the game, and one that CFB 27 is helping to preserve despite adding NIL into this year’s game.
After opening with Cignetti holding the trophy and Mendoza diving into the end zone, his voice narrates the trailer that features just about every top school and a few smaller ones. As Cignetti narrates, we see the pageantry of the sport, the traditions, and even the MACcoon. But we also see and hear the impacts on the field, the new dynamic weather system muddying the uniforms, and Cignetti’s words hit:
Some players who walk through that tunnel, onto that field. grew up dreaming about putting on this uniform. They’ve rooted for this team their whole life, and want to be a part of something bigger than themselves. Som ehave another dream: The Money, the deals, the cars, those shiny teeth.
That’s college football now. I get it. Everyone’s got to make a name for themselves.
Truth is, I don’t care why you show up, I care about what happens after you do. I care if you love to compete. If you want every advantage. And if it turns into one thing on Saturday. Winning. That’s why I want you here. That’s what you’re here to do. And there’s no better place to do it.
While Coach Cig’s involvement here stems from his success in the 2025-2026 season, there really isn’t anyone else well-suited to showcase the kind of football that EA Sports immortalizes year after year. He’s the coach we want to be in our Online Dynasties, and he’s the coach we want to work with on a Road to Glory.
Curt Cignetti captured hope last season, and so does the trailer.
It’s that magic that we see in the trailer, and for me, there was something about seeing Arch Manning in the rain, throwing a bomb of a ball before the offensive line gives out, the rain around him, making a name for himself outside of the football royalty he comes from. But it’s not because of who I know him to be as a player; it’s about what I know that team to be. What it meant to my father, to me, and how it felt walking through DKR Stadium for the first time on my campus tour.
There is a history in every field, whether you’re a Manning or the first of your family to push a boundary. We lose that magic when all we can think about is the NIL deal. But most importantly, this trailer isn’t detached from Curt Cignetti.
The words he speaks echo in every interview he gives. Lane Kiffin couldn’t read that script, Sarkisian couldn’t either, and to be honest, you’d be hard-pressed to find a single coach from a Power Five school who still keeps that spark alive. But in CFB 27, it is alive, and it’s in us.
When Cignetti discussed Mendoza, he said, “The great ones have a special discipline and a special commitment. They’re always striving for the end goal, whatever that may be.” As a game, you can see what EA Sports College Football 27 is striving for, and it’s the same as we all are when 8 am strikes on a Saturday morning and College Gameday comes on. Yes, it’s greatness, but it’s also hope.
EA Sports College Football 27 is available now on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.
