‘College Football 26’ review: Does EA deliver in its second year?

My biggest fear upon booting up College Football 26 was that the studio would rest on its laurels. The inaugural iteration was an absolute triumph, serving as a glowing love letter to to the sport which blended on-field realism with the atmosphere that makes college football unlike anything else. It would have been easy to simply run it back, rework the rosters, retool some animations and call it a day — but that hasn’t happened here.

Now, with over 30 hours in the game, I can safely say that College Football 26 is the best football game ever made. As someone who has played every game since Tecmo Bowl that’s high praise, but the developers deserve it. It’s clear now that last year’s game wasn’t an end result, but a first step.

College Football 26 is a refinement of everything that was great about last year’s game, with the dial turned up even more. The peerless presentation returns with an expansion to add more unique emphasis to smaller schools. Of course, the major players in college football weren’t left out, with Virginia Tech’s iconic “Enter Sandman” entrance being fully realized, and every bit as goosebump inducing as it is in real life. This extends to Michigan, where fans will sing “Mr. Brightside” from the stands making the Big House feel more real that ever.

On top of these two presentation elements comes a revamped school band system which makes more of an impact than I would have predicted. School fight songs are obviously still present as you’d expect, but in addition there are dozens of Top 40 hits which have been imagined in marching band form. From “Flowers” by Miley Cyrus to Shaboozey’s “A Bar Song (Tipsy),” you might not care for the songs being played — but it adds to the air of atmosphere that better replicates game day.

None of this would matter if the on-field play didn’t back it up. In this regard there have been major overhauls both obvious, and more difficult to put your finger on. Playbooks have been drastically expanded, adding over 2,800 new plays and 45 new formations. It helps flesh out how different each team plays, especially those who use varied offensive formations and trick plays.

Sports titles often boast about the number of new animations added to their games, and College Football 26 is no different — but for the first time in a while these are serious, impactful decisions that better replicate football. Players will now extend out with the ball when close to the sticks in order to try to get a first down, receivers will high-point the ball in contested catch situations, and diving tackles are effective for the first time in, well, forever. Now if a player has daylight there’s a small, but meaningful chance a dive tackle from behind can result in an ankle tap that will trip up the runner.

These might all seem small, but in totality they contribute to the realism of the game. In addition there’s far fewer examples of player models clipping through each other, with contact being more contextual, and resulting in players contorting their bodies as they get tangled up at the line of scrimmage or in the air.

One of my favorite examples of the overhauled animation system came while playing in the Red River Showdown. I tossed a back-shoulder pass to my receiver, but he was slightly out of position. After high-pointing the ball he moved his hands to make the catch at an awkward angle, rather than seeing the ball teleport into his hands to fit a canned animation.

This extends to defensive backs as well, and massive improvements have been made to DB play in College Football 26. Now players simply can’t make interceptions of passes they don’t see. No more teleporting INTs, no magical, nonsensical picks. The best you can do if you’re playing the man and not the ball is time your jump right to bat it away. Conversely, playing DB means you can now choose to play the ball, and not the man — and any throws a defensive back has eyes on has a much greater chance of being intercepted.

Another interesting element is Wear and Tear 2.0, which uses physics data from where players are being hit to simulate their potential for injury. For the first time hospital throws are punished in a major way on offense, and it’s not uncommon to see receivers be in risk of injury early if you throw over the middle too often with a safety lurking to deliver a big hit. This extends into the injury system, which now allows you to choose basic treatments for a player on the fly, rather than simply sub them in or out. A tweaked ankle can be treated with light tape, or heavy tape for example, which determines how many plays a player will miss, but also how safe they’ll be upon return. While this system isn’t fully explained, it adds an element of realism to how teams manage moments in-game.

There’s no better way to say it other than everything just feels right. Football unfolds as you’d expect it to, and there are fewer “WTF” moments than in any past game. It’s a monumental achievement for the engine, and something I pray carries over to Madden this year.

The smallest improvements this year have been made to Dynasty and Road to Glory. Recruiting is largely the same outside of a few core changes. It now takes less hours to scout local players and have them for visits, which accentuates prioritizing nearby three and four star recruits, rather than simply trying to sway five stars all around the country. This also means more local recruiting battles in state, particularly in packed regions.

Road to Glory is largely the same, other than a few new decisions to make along the way. The ability to create a high school is now available, meaning you can realistically recreate where you went to school and use that as a jumping point, rather than one of the default schools. It’s small, but will mean a lot to people who enjoy that minutia of the game. I’d still like to see the roster of selectable positions expand to allow for players to be offensive linemen, or for sickos like me to create a 28-year-old Australian punter who came to college football after working as a roofer in Melbourne.

College Football 26 is an absolute triumph. Developers saw the love (and criticism) towards elements of last year’s game and chose to improve almost every aspect for this year. Football has never felt more realistic, and there’s something magical about finally seeing a yearly sports release which doesn’t just made minor changes, but truly iterates on what was brilliant to take the game to an entirely other level.

This is the best football game ever made.

College Football 26 is available for PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X/S. It was reviewed on Xbox Series X using review code supplied by EA Sports.