Fans spent a long, long time waiting for the return of college football video games, and while EA Sports College Football 25 instantly proved a smash success, it was still missing a number of features that had appeared over a decade earlier in NCAA Football 14. As the devs begin to lift the veil on College Football 26, they're already teasing some big additions that players have been clamoring for.
Alongside today's official reveal trailer, EA also published a blog post running down some of the new features coming to this year's game. There's a lot here, including over 300 real-world coaches, some 2,800 new plays, and enhanced home field advantage effects.
But those all pale in comparison to the return of the Trophy Room, if the community's response is any indication. As in the old NCAA games, the Trophy Room will house all of the trophies you earn across game modes from Dynasty to basic quick match rivalry games, letting you look back at your accomplishments over all the time you've spent playing the game. EA says "we heard your feedback" about wanting it to return.
Dynasty mode is getting some special attention, with new recruitment mechanics and the addition of full cross-play across Xbox Series X/S and PS5. But the detail that has fans most excited is almost buried in the announcement: "We’re happy to announce that Formation Subs and a Protected Opponents setting are coming!"
Formation subs were previously available in the old NCAA games, and they essentially offered a convenient way to substitute players in particular formations. If you've got, say, two good quarterbacks with different skill sets, formation subs would easily let you have one player in for option plays and another in for regular passing plays. It could also be useful for helping bring in newer players for gametime experience.
Exactly how formation subs will work in CFB26 remains to be seen, but their return is already making waves. The protected opponent setting is also generating some excitement, as it'll let you maintain your annual rivalry matches in Dynasty mode, which could be an issue in last year's game due to the chaos of the automatic scheduler.
We won't know for sure how College Football 26 pans out until it launches on July 10, but for now, it looks like EA understands the criticisms of last year's game as it builds on that title's momentum.
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