EA Sports College Football has been my favorite video game for the last two years. Could it be because of the long hiatus the series had? Probably. But there are a bunch of reasons I love it—and a handful of things I’d love to see updated, changed, or added to the upcoming edition. I’ve had a ton of fun playing this game the last couple years. Madden and 2K barely get any run anymore. Usually by now I’m fully invested in 2K, but that hasn’t been the case recently. I still hop on it here and there because I’m working on that previous post about making Stephon Marbury a Hall of Famer (which is going well, by the way), but anyway… back to CFB.

One reason I love the game is because I get to play as my alma mater, Coastal Carolina University. I absolutely love my school and I love building them into a powerhouse—a national title contender people actually think about when they think of college football. (Yes, I know it’s not real life, but a man can dream, right?) In NCAA 14, Coastal wasn’t even in the game unless you used Team Builder, so it’s dope to finally have them represented as an FBS school. Pretty much every dynasty I do is with the Chants. 👌

Another reason I love this game is because I’m a sucker for a rebuild challenge. I used to do rebuilds on Madden, 2K, even MLB, but mainly Madden and 2K. With college sports, though, it’s way more challenging. I always loved NCAA College Basketball and NCAA Football because taking a lower-tier school and building them into a national champion, top recruiting program, or just a team that can hang with the big boys is an elite gaming experience. That’s probably why I’ve been so hooked on CFB these last couple years—because we went so long without a college game.

To me, rebuilding in college is harder because there are more teams and you can’t just overpay a player like in the pro games. Even though NIL exists in real life, I can’t offer players money in the game, so recruiting is more about strategy. People turn off the salary cap in Madden and load up on whoever they want, and I’m like… how is that fun? I need a challenge. With Coastal or schools like them, I can’t just buy top recruits, so I’ve got to dig for 3-star gems and lower 4-stars, build a respectable roster, beat bigger teams, and slowly work my way up until I can compete for the top players in the country.

Now, onto what I’d like to see in the newest edition.

First, I wish you could update conferences before the transfer portal stage. In real life, conference realignment is planned years in advance, and those changes affect recruiting and transfers right away. If I move to a better conference, my program prestige should help me in the portal and with recruits. Letting us change conferences only at “preseason” feels dumb. Sure, I can still land good recruits, but I’d like to see how earlier conference changes affect things. Plus, it’s just more realistic.

Second, brand exposure definitely needs tweaking. I’ll schedule big-time programs every year, especially in season one, to help build my brand. But even when I beat the #1 team in the country as an unranked Sun Belt team, my brand exposure barely moves. That makes no sense. In real life, Coastal’s brand exploded after beating BYU in 2020. “Mormons vs. Mullets” was everywhere—and that game was thrown together in basically a week. It was huge for us. If something like that happens in-game, brand exposure should reflect it.

Third, I’m always a sucker for presentation upgrades—pregame shows, halftime shows, broadcast elements, all that stuff. Back in the day, they used to show the announcers before kickoff. Now? We never see them. I know licensing is part of the issue, but I’d love a GameDay-style weekly recap, or at least something more immersive. Madden actually has a solid halftime show this year, and I wish CFB would follow that trend. I’d also love different announcers for smaller games vs. big matchups. A Sun Belt afternoon game shouldn’t have the same broadcast crew as a top-five showdown. Stuff like that adds realism.

Fourth, and this one annoys me the most—they removed the coin toss. Why?? I hate that now you just pick your preference in the menu before the game. I want the actual coin toss back. Let me guess wrong like an idiot. Let me pray the CPU doesn’t pick what I don’t want. It’s small, but it’s part of the tradition. They had it in the game forever, and its removal still pisses me off.

Another thing that needs fixing: dealbreakers. Playing time should not be based only on player rating. If a lower-rated player is actually starting over someone higher-rated, that should satisfy the playing time requirement, not leave it unchanged. It makes zero logical sense otherwise. I do appreciate how they fixed seniors not transferring after the starter ahead of them graduates, but the logic still needs more improvement.

I’m sure I’ll think of more as I keep playing CFB today and in the coming weeks. MLB The Show coming out will slow me down a bit, but we’ll see if 2K can grab my attention before then. It has a chance… but who knows.

Anyway, I’m sure another post will come once I find more things to love or hate about the game. But I’d love to hear what you all think—what you want changed, what you want added, what you love, or what drives you insane.

– Jett Garden