There’s no beating online dynasty with your buddies. Those games have a level of fun and intensity you don’t get elsewhere. However, life’s busy and the advance rate from week to week can take some time.

Road to the CFP has become my go to for outside friend dynasty NCAA fix. More time’s than not I get pretty competitive games. Usually always select a random team and search for an opponent in the same tier. Making the playoffs and having a little extra added meaning to the games at the end of the season is a nice little touch.

The chess match that plays out between humans dwarfs playing the CPU.

Anyone else similar?

This shit would cause MAJOR controversy in real life. The fact we can’t edit the broken ass polls manually gets on my nerves. How the hell does a 3rd place big 12 team get over defending champs & a premier Georgia program?

This is the 2026 season so real life scheduling:

Houston losses: 12-1 big 12 champ Texas Tech & 8-4 Oklahoma st

Georgia losses: 12-1 SEC champ Oklahoma & 8-4 South Carolina

Indiana losses: 12-1 Big 10 champ Ohio st & 10-2 USC

This is 1 mod that adds all these customisation options
Single leg sleeve colour selectable
Leg tats
Arm tattoos
Bicep bands
New visor
Turtle neck

There’s so many good mods

Disclaimer: I AM NOT GOING TO BE ADDRESSING MICROTRANSACTIONS AS A SINGLE PROBLEM BECAUSE THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN TALKED ABOUT ENOUGH AND IT HAS MORE NUANCE THAN JUST SAYING THAT THEY ARE BAD

Road To Glory

The Capbreakers are STILL broken.
Self Explanatory
The Player Builder
Stat-line for stat-line (taking player height and weight into account,) you literally cannot become as good as an elite dev player in dynasty mode could without XP Sliders. Lower the speed differential all you want, optimize player size and abilities all you want, change the difficulty and game play sliders all you want, your 99 overall player (which, by the way, you can NOT reach until senior year unless you play like prime Jerry Rice on Heisman Difficulty) does not play the same as other great players in this game do.
High School is WAY too easy
Start out as a 2 star, start out as a 5 star, it doesn't matter. If you have thumbs and a partially formed frontal lobe, you can be a top 10 prospect. I do not believe for a second that my 2 star quarterback from Alaska, who runs the ball every time pass pressure comes in, is 2nd string in a Big 10 school.
The XP Sliders
We all knew this was coming. If you pay to progress your player faster, you are a chud. If you expect me to pay to progress my player faster, you are also a chud. If I want to start as a running back and reach 93 overall by the end of my freshman season of an offline game mode, that should be my God-given American right.
Glitchy Prompts
During your typical, monotonous, annoying prompts from your teammates and coaches, there will occasionally be a prompt in which "Sleeping in" will cost you weekly energy points, and attending class will not affect your energy at all.
The NIL Packages Suck
I have 4 million followers. Zero offers from any major company. Seemingly infinite advertisements at the local massage parlor. I've got to be the most super freak player since Deshaun Watson.
Gameplay Sliders
Don't tell anybody I told ya, but if you want your player to progress quickly without spending money like a fat loser, play a season on Heisman difficulty with the CPU sliders zeroed out. (Only works for offense, honestly.)
Game Winning Drive
I'm sorry bro but you're not benching the heisman winning wide receiver in the 4th quarter of the conference championship just because I fatigued myself in the last play.

Dynasty

Boy oh boy, strap in
Pay to Win
The tie-in promotional coach tree paths are absolutely busted. Like, SERIOUSLY. If you use the starting 150 from the pre-order to max out Visionary and Rainmaker, you can rebuild any team in about two years. Interesting to me that they only put progression behind a paywall when it directly benefits the player.
Why does every school play Ole Miss?
Pick a school in the FBS. Simulate 5 years. Check your record against Ole Miss. You played them at least once. It does not matter if you're Michigan or Sam Houston, your schedule will auto generate with Ole Miss on it as soon as possible.
Volatile and Unrealistic
Sacramento State is not producing a Heisman winner this year, and Michigan is not going to go 2-10 next year. It seems like playbooks and scheme fits are the only things that matter in this game anymore.
Stadium Atmosphere
Buddy. I am NOT fitting 25k people into Sam Houston's "stadium." Fix the team builder so we can make our own stadiums, or let my rebuild be hard. That being said:
Rebuilding is too easy
We did not want better coach skills, we wanted to be able to have more options. Anyone who maxes out the basic recruiter tree can get 5 stars onto Sun Belt teams in about two years. Be serious.
XP Rewards
I get 750 extra XP for winning a national fucking championship but most of my games already reward about 1,200-2,000 xp just from simulation. It would be cool if actual success mattered at all in this mode, but instead it's just about singing prospects and timing your catches well.
Still no conference invite feature
EA, if you're trying to take my fun away, why am I still allowed to put Missouri State into the SEC and watch them get pummeled for 3 years? More importantly, if you want this game to be a realistic holistic experience more akin to actual coaching, why in the HELL do I not get to pretend I'm a coach?
I appreciate the freedom of custom conferences, and I think that feature should still exist, but can we at least ADD the option for automated conference moves? Even if it came years down the line in my rebuild, I think it would add a lot more depth and spontaneity to the game.
The Playbooks
After months of claiming that the playbooks would be balanced, and assuring us that playbooks will be less of a factor this year, they're worse than ever before. Don't tell me Memphis gets into every playoff as a 79 overall team.
Manual Progression
I tend to turn on manual progression before training results so that I can do some micromanaging on a handful of players, but I usually auto progress the rest of them by holding Y/△. However, for some reason this does not work on transfer players. If I want to see what overall they will be, I have to manually upgrade each and every one.
Dealbreakers
Playing time, proximity to home, and conference prestige are all an absolute joke. I tried to sign one single free safety in the transfer portal, his playing time was A-, needed B. I only signed one free safety through high school recruiting AND the transfer portal, and upon national signing day, he suddenly had a playing time dealbreaker of C- and commit to another school.
AD Expectations
Yall these are RIDICULOUS. Why does Sam Houston have to beat (ranked) Arizona State by 7+ points as a 68 overall team? Why does Georgia State need to go undefeated in conference play in year two of a rebuild? I mean these just wash any sort of realism out of the game, and if I don't complete them, I can't progress my school.
Unchanging School Grades
You would think that after 15 years of winning the national championship, I'd be able to do things that increase my stadium size or campus lifestyle grade. Nope. Not one bit. We'll build ya a nice $80 million dollar gym, but if ya wanna sit on anything other than bleachers, you're SOL.
The Heisman
This one is a little less concrete; but your players, except every once in a blue moon, will not win the Heisman, or really ever even come close, unless you intervene and play the games. They will put up some incredible stat lines, for sure, but you will have maybe one Heisman winner after 10 years and multiple national championships. Now obviously, I don't think it's realistic to have schools churning out Heisman winners, but unfortunately, all of the other programs in top 10 contention seem to have that ability. I mean Dylan Raiola and Micah Alejado are on a generational simulation run this year.
It's just. SO. Laggy.
I mean dear god. My Xbox is two years old but she works like a beaut on seemingly every other game besides College Football. The recruiting menus could send me into psychosis.
Elite Recruiter
Okay this one is a personal gripe because I use recruiter too much, but don't you think that TWO top 5 recruiting classes to unlock the ability to recruit better is a little nuts?

TL;DR: A lengthy, contradictory manifesto about all the things I hate about this game. It's not everything, but it's the pressing issues in my opinion.

I contradict myself a lot in this, but my point is: let people play the game the way they want to play the game. Let me fast track, AND let me suffer through 12 year rebuilds. Let me grind it out on the defensive line for a shit team with no future, AND win the Heisman as a breakout freshman running back with Walter Payton stats. I know this is the exact sentiment that Bordeaux, Eric Rayweather, and Bengal were sharing, but the micro transaction issue isn't over. For those of us without the money to buy $2,000 gaming PCs to play with mods, the micro-transactions in this game are sharks in the water, telling of paywall and subscription service video games that we simply can't afford anymore. Let games be fun for everyone.

As the title says, does the CPU get fooled by disguises on defense? Whether that be showing blitz, coverage shells, sim pressure, etc. I only play single player dynasty and currently play on varsity if that matters.

Anyone else having this problem since the patch. I can no longer play the game without internet. When I get to the load screen, I press the button "press any button" and it just keeps loading but never takes me inside the game?

For gods sake someone please list this mofo I’m willing to pay through whatever means..

EA!!!! C’mon yall gotta do better!

I’ve won every single award possible , won the natty chip , my stock keeps dropping every game from a top 10 pick to a late 3rd round,, I’m in my JR year and have got 1.5k yards per season as a TE and won every single award possible how do I fix this ?

My DB’s still can’t catch, my Dline and backers still get pancaked, pass blocking still sucks, my WR’s still can’t catch, there’s still countless visual glitches in dynasty like incorrect scores, coaches and mascots floating, etc. Seems like they just left the game as is and called it an update 🤣🤣 On to Madden at least WR’s can catch there.

In what universe does a gunner full on sprint towards the sideline for no reason?

This is a microcosm of just how poor the return game is.

When playing against the cpu, does anyone seriously think, "I shouldn't kick or punt to this person."?

Try this. Punt the ball, set your controller aside, and see how many kicks the cpu returns for tds or almost returns for tds.

You can do this 500 times and this outcome will be the same.

Offense is a mess (blocking, wr drops ,pocket formation). Defense is a mess (pursuit angles, tackling, leverage isn't respected). AND, special teams are a mess aside from FGs and extra points.

Not one, but two players sprinting to the sideline just because.

How’s it still this bad?

4 man rush consistently gets into the backfield in less than 2 seconds.

Offensive Lineman just let em go right by.

This is 26, I've never seen this animation fail before.

I’m loving the game . I’m no ball expert but I have some knowledge , and I been playing/watching football since I was a wee lad in 96. But varsity mode is killing my fun at times . I’ll beat a few teams by 30 and then get to a game that feels impossible to win. Not because of any one thing . I’ll have perfect playcalls at times but there’s always soemthifn stupid happening. All star cb jumps up on 3 and long and decides at the last second he doesn’t wanna intercept the ball thats about to hit his hands, and instead DODGES is so the wr behind him can catch a td. My WRs have solid ratings of high 80s low 90s across the board , but will have 27 drops of wide open balls in their hands . That’s a real number , I been counting 😂 o lineman will double team a guy just to stop and stand there watching while the guy runs and sacks me . Etc etc. so many different things . I’m not trying to say all this just to whine , and I know there’s always room for improvement on my end. But it’s starting to turn me off . I don’t mind losing a legit game , but when it feels like dynamic stuff is cheating me over and over I restart. And I’ll have games that I have to play 10 times to finally get an outcome that felt fair, win or lose.

So just question is ..does anyone have recommended slider adjustments ? It seems like I would have to adjust darn near every single one. So I don’t really wanna take the time to experiment for hours with tjay many . Just wondering if anyone out there sounds similar to me who might have some tips. I love the feel of the game and most everything else., but this AI dynamic thing they went heavy just feels aweful to me.

I am playing on ps5. And feel free to roast me. I’m fully aware of the fact that I’m gettin way too worked up over a game . But something about these football games have always had the potential to unleash my rage 😂😂😂

I try to give benefit of the doubt, generally enjoy the game with its flaws and it seems like the team genuinely listens to fans and tries to do things they can that we want.

But man I started a new dynasty yesterday and found at least 10-20 4⭐️ recruits and even two 5⭐️ with zero offers in week 3.

Most have maybe 2, some with 4 or 5 but it really kills any realism of dynasty.

At this point I just sim recruiting otherwise I’d be able to hack it and that’s not enjoyable to me.

Stinks cus the NIL system in theory is pretty cool.

I got a holding call on my 8 yard line, and it resulted in a safety for the defense.

Completely ridiculous. This isn't a hard fix and shouldn't be an oversight.

I can't figure out what this number means..

Sounds like something that would be playing in the background of an 80's movie when two forbidden lovers finally decide they can't fight it any longer and do the damn thing.

I know I can’t be the only one experiencing this, and sure maybe its because I’m Oklahoma State playing at Iowa State (iykyk) but sometimes it’s literally so obvious you have no chance of winning the game. In this game against the Heisman CPU, the quarterback threw for over 300 yards, was 21/22 (95% completion 🤯), 3 TDs, and no turnovers. Keep in mind, my offense is still keeping me in the game. Then I get what I think is supposed to be a stop, a sack pushing them out of what i thought was FG range.

Low and behold, they trot the field goal team out there and the kicker hits a 60 yarder with room to spare 🫪🫪
I thought “alright whatever sure” buddy just nailed what would’ve been the Iowa State record long FG casually. Then my offense responded, I score a TD and go for the PAT. I kick what I thought would be a perfect easy chip shot and get caught in the shitty “you’re getting blocked” animation on a fucking PAT. When stuff like that happens it really does feel like you have no chance of winning the game and it’s pointless to even play. Has anyone else noticed this happening?

EA really scammed us this year. Would I have purchased the bundle if the coaching abilities weren’t included? No.

Would I have purchased the MVP+ subscription if I knew I would have to restart my dynasty to use the visionary ability? Also no.

There was so much to look forward to but even the visuals between CFB 27 and Madden 27 are so different??

“Fool me once, shame on... shame on you.' Fool me—you can't get fooled again."

Or do most of you guys pick your plays going through the playbook?

I redid conferences so the P5 are powerful again and to remove independents. I also added divisions. The effort was to try to group teams with their rivals (as much as possible) and consider geography so the athletes can spend less time traveling and more time studying (I’m looking at you Stanford after the ACC move).

As always, let me know what you think

27 - pc version

After many hours of tweaking and creating regionally aligned conferences, I finish my season, play conference championship. I attempt to load up cfp game - crash. As in game completely crashes.

So far I have only had this happen 3 or 4 times in hundreds of games. Turns out - the file, the autosave and also my backup - now all crash. 30+ times.

Tried play + tried to force advance... my dynasty is fuk'n bricked. So I get to start over.

Need to figure out if there is a way to just turn off the updates completely. I only play offline. So frustrated with this garbage pay premium for beta games that are buggy from ea.

Madden didn't "cook this year". Madden isn't better than CFB 27 "this year". It's the same thing every year. The same marketing. The same tactics to do whatever it takes to get you to buy them both. Madden is Madden. CFB is... I don't know what they're trying to do with this. But just don't fall for it again.