Dynasty Feedback & Observations (Long)
Although a few of my CFB 25 Dynasty gripes were addressed in CFB 26, I'm pretty disappointed with what seems to be marginal changes to Dynasty overall this year. Most of what has been adjusted just feels like patch level changes that were purposely held back from 25 to justify talking points for 26. At any rate, I'm hoping that items below can be implemented or considered for the road map. Recruiting & Team Management 25 seemed alright as I tried to learn the dealbreakers, the tactics related to points, visits, sells, etc. but it feels more tedious in 26. After playing a few seasons I'm kind of over how this is setup and the slog this has already become after just two years of the game. I propose providing players an option to switch over to a straight up, simplified point system instead of designating what activity you want to do or trying to sell or sway players, similar to the older NCAA games. If I'm spending 40 points or 65 points on a player, just let me select that point amount out of my budget rather than what feels like padding by selecting a combination of activities. This would also include toggling off Dealbreakers, which are extremely annoying and in many cases result in being locked out of players that have you as their #1 choice from the start and then for weeks after, or not signing with anyone. If my school is their number one choice, wouldn't they have an idea of their playing time/spot on the roster, playing style, etc. already? This is also driving ridiculous transfer outcomes in the offseason. Further, why do any 2 or 1 star players have Dealbreakers at all in the game other than for the purpose of fitting within the game's core framework? These players are scrubs and largely serve as warm bodies to fill out a roster. They shouldn't be hung up whether or not New Mexico State has good brand exposure. At the very least, Dealbreakers for these low tier recruits should either be off completely or have the option to toggle off. Additionally, a simplified mode of recruiting would eliminate the grade system for your school which is largely out of your control anyway outside of winning, staying, or switching conferences. Everything, in a simplified recruiting, would rely on your prestige star rating, which is effectively a culmination of your grades anyway. Persuasion system needs to be adjusted in any new Dynasty change as it's the most nonsensical aspect of recruiting by far. This just feels like an RNG with the chance a player stays (low, high, etc.) being entirely irrelevant. Either A) the persuasion attempts need to act as firm locks to retain a player, or B) these players need to be worked into your overall recruiting strategy and require hours to spend in order to retain them—with the players who are least likely to stay taking more points to keep on the team. Recruiting map and dynamic pipelines are a must. I want to visually see where my recruits are pinned and how many/who on my roster are already from those territories. As I recruit more (from let's say Tidewater), it should gradually go from bronze to silver to gold and so on until I'm a power in that region. On the map, I should also have some kind of visual feedback of the pipeline area that's "heating up" or "cooling off" and how many more players I need to recruit in order to have it as a solid pipeline. Visits need to be tuned so the amount that you can schedule during a season is based on your prestige. If you're Alabama, it could be 12 for one game and basically unlimited for the season. If you're Kent State, it should be 12 for the entire season so you need to make them count. Alabama can afford to bring in and put up into hotels almost as many recruits as they want for a weekend, whereas Kent State is going to be really limited. (Perhaps an expansion of the dynamic point value based on proximity that was added) This should also spill over into recruits themselves—hardly any 2 or 1 star recruits are getting visits in real life. Visits should just be omitted entirely for these low-tier recruits. Player variation specifically with tattoos, long hair, and dreadlocks. Unless I've missed something, there are once again no recruits with any of these physical traits. Ability to cut freshmen—I have no clue why we are prohibited from doing this and it was a huge problem in 25 where after a few good classes, my upper classmen that were highly rated had to be cut to make space for incoming freshmen. Fix position changes and skill cap cheese. Also show the top 3 positions that player would fit in best without me having to click into a screen with each position listed and 95% of them make zero sense to move that player to. Abilities in my opinion just seem like complete fluff that have no bearing on performance. I’ve seen the "Heisman moment" green thing on the player reticle and they can’t break a single tackle on the play. Just provide the ability to toggle these off and instead rely the overalls + basic star player designations for occasional boosts… 3 on offense, 3 defense. This was done so much better in NCAA 06 and has been way over engineered in CFB (and Madden for that matter). Coaching & Jobs Provide the ability to retire as a coach, then return at a later time in Dynasty while retaining their records, ratings/skills, and awards. There are some seasons where I want to take a break or I’m not getting the jobs I want so I’ll sit out a season or two, then come back and select a new team to rebuild. There should be continuity when doing this online or offline unless you choose to start as a new coach. I'd even be open to a slight debuff to the coach stats if you decide to retire then come back. More emphasis on the importance of coordinators. As it stands, they just feel like window dressing more than anything. I should be able to take my coordinators with me to a new job, retain the existing coordinators at the new job, or offer any coach in the league (HC/OC/DC) to join my staff. There also needs to be a toggle that forces me to use my coordinators playbooks as well as let me preview the playbook they intend on bringing. There needs to be some kind of point system related to hiring these coordinators. Right now, you just select from a list of 5 or 6, wait a week, and it's again an RNG whether or not they will sign—even if they have 3 other top opportunities listed. If I start as a coordinator, then limit the user to just that side of the ball. If I'm an OC, then I only play offense and only recruit offense and only get graded on offense performance. Having played numerous seasons, there's no noticeable difference between user-controlled OC/DC and HC. Coaching carousel needs to be overhauled. NCAA 14 was extremely compelling and felt like an actual carousel as jobs were taken and rotated through in real time, forcing you to take a chance or miss out. The current system, unchanged from 25, is totally stagnant. There are too few options and I can’t select other schools that are open. If I'm good enough to get Ohio State, I should be able to select Bowling Green if it's open. On the other hand, if I'm at Ohio State, why are so many offers for OC/DC jobs? If I'm the CFB version of Nick Saban, I should be able to basically hand pick any job I want. When considering a school, there needs to be a toggle or comprehensive overview screen that shows: top players returning, projected ratings in next season, current recruiting ranking, previous year stat rankings, uniforms, stadium information/screenshot of stadium. These are all things I have to back out and check in various ways—rosters, depth chart, play now, open practice, etc. before making a decision. Presentation Multiple score bugs and broadcast packages are a must in order to replicate the feel of Fox, ESPN, CBS, etc. as games should to look/feel different. This needs to come with at least one or two more commentary crews to round it out like Sean McDonough, Joe Tessitore, Gus Johnson, etc. In the "primetime" game of the week, there should be enhanced camera replays like you’d see in Madden/NFL—close up in end zone, drone shots, exterior stadium shots, and the coin toss. There has to be a halftime show and a weekly summary. No excuse this isn’t in CFB 27. This should include highlights, scores from around the country, and standings/big games ahead. This should include some kind of Top 25 reveal similar to what ESPN does weekly. You already have the audio for the team names and overlaying that with logos popping up would be great. A bowl selection show should be included too with the final CFP bracket reveal...I'd be thrilled with just a little commentary over this as the team logos are slotted into the bracket and bowl matchups. Crowds/fans need enhanced significantly although I assume this will not happen until next gen (PS6). Dynamic sidelines based on game size with more people, players, and activity. This has been an issue for probably 2 console generations now. There aren’t enough people or density on the sidelines. If you watch any top 10 game, every space out of bounds is filled with people. Crowds need to be dynamic—if you are blowing out a team or getting blown out, people should leave the game. More realistic crowds for bowl games and lower-tier conference title games. Almost none of these games are ever sold out. Seeing Ford Field at capacity for the MAC championship is just not happening ever. In the real game, they can barely fill the lower bowl and it’s that way for the majority of bowls, too. Crowd movement and density improvement as it looks sparse at most angles and they all sway in predictable patterns. Ability to select crowd themes. If I wear all black, the crowd should either wear all black automatically or I should be able to select from a list of options (striped, checkered, black, white, primary, secondary, mix/default) just like uniforms with a preview. Dynamic weather and better snow similar to Madden and much improved rain. Rain games just suck and are depressing in this game mainly because it looks awful. When you break a record, it should show in the game broadcast UI seamlessly in a stat overlay or lower third. Just having that as a popup screen takeover in the Dynasty menu with tiny font seems like an afterthought. Heisman ceremony—this doesn’t need to be complicated, just show the 3-5 top players in the first row of the event, a little commentary and comparison of stats of each player (maybe a reply highlight or two), then an animation of the winner being announced and accepting the trophy. User Interface One of my biggest issues... the UI simply needs to be overhauled completely. I can understand a basic framework being used for CFB 25 as there were clearly other priorities in order to get the game out, but using the identical structure for 26 is extremely lackluster. The flat 2D, sharp edges, rough brush effects and retro stuff just feels super dated. The sound effects are also slightly delayed and sound terrible, making everything feel more sluggish. All the menus should make users feel like it’s an ESPN CFB show with bold, aggressive fonts, stylized logos, wipes, etc. like a broadcast show. CFB 25 was a fun/cute aesthetic to get us going, but the it's now already severely outdated. My brother and I joke that almost every popup or notification is like a PowerPoint slide. It just feels rushed and uninspired. If no changes are made, the tab system in the main menu needs to be reworked. It doesn’t feel intuitive, it's not customizable, or organized around the info users access most often—like Play Week, Top 25, Standings, Stats, and Settings. For example, having “Members” as the second option creates an unnecessary click and would be better placed as a submenu under Dynasty Central or shown only to the commissioner. Weekly Summary and the end of week recap is the most useless screen in the game. The recruiting update is irrelevant as I'm headed there immediately after I click through these "updates". Coach XP bar/update—who cares? Just move this to the top right or in the XP submenu. I don't need to see this every week and it doesn't need its own slide. The coach level is displayed anyway in the top right. School grade updates seem pointless as well—half the stats don't update week-to-week or they just go up/down by half a letter grade which doesn't really matter and only a handful of categories are shown anyway. It's unnecessary to see the exact same players who might transfer based on these grades each week. As an update—just give the user the ability to customize what's shown on this screen, or at the very least, more relevant info like: New Top 25, team record, last game's result/stats/highlights, next week's game, conference standings, etc. Top stories, team schedule, etc. slides that are selected with right stick still show irrelevant/incorrect info. At the very least, if you’re going to keep this framework for next year again, throw in screenshots/highlights from games. Just having the helmets and text is very barebones and contributes to the very real issue of Dynasty feeling soulless. The coach off to the right is also unnecessary—we don’t need to see someone at all times who has a generic head swaying back and forth. This would be somewhat cooler if we could create custom faces, but you barely show the coaches in game so what's the point of showing them here? It's a waste of space. Fonts in general are way too small especially in all the charts. The handwritten/rough typeface used in a few locations (including the team record in the scoreboard) is illegible. If you change your coach’s name, it only updates in the card under "Coach Stats", but it remains the original name in the list to the left. Miscellaneous Ability to add Teambuilder teams to Dynasty past the 136 instead of just swapping them out. You could even cap it at like 144 total or something if you need a framework max for scheduling. I just want the ability to bring up a few FCS schools via Teambuilder rather than trading out an FBS school. At the least, it’d be great to insert Teambuilder teams in place of the generic "FCS West" schools. Teambuilder team helmets in the team select screen and other locations should appear just like default teams. It looks goofy with these teams being just the logo in every location whereas all other default teams have the helmets (if the UI isn’t completely changed anyway). Stadium rankings list—Include a list of the top 25 stadiums, their records, current streaks, attendance, and a visual of the stadium that we can look at somewhere in the menus. There is no way to see how these fluctuate and I'm almost convinced that they don't at all. When building your schedule, show the opponent team ratings off to right. Team stats need to have rankings next to them or this needs to be in some kind of pre-game matchup screen. I get you can go to the team stats and scroll to your team and estimate where you land, but I need to see something like "PPG: 37.5 (#16)" somewhere prominent. Little things like this build connectivity amongst the league rather. Ability to schedule neutral site games—ideally at any NFL stadium from Madden although I realize this is a licensing thing. At the very least provide more context into how things like the Duke’s Mayo kickoff works for example. Get rid of the generic rock music that’s used in Open Practice mode. It’s terrible, too loud and abrasive. Also, hoping we can just get generic practice jerseys for all teams (primary solid top, white pants) for immersion. Conference stickers on helmets still don’t change when updating conferences as far as I can tell. There are no Captain patches and assigning them seems pointless. Would love to see these show up on a jersey and the coin flip return. Updated player models/pads. Everything is way too bulky still. When selecting uniforms at the mix & match screen, update the numbers to "26" or whatever the game year is or randomize the numbers. It’s currently "0" which doesn’t reveal enough about the number style.
Team Prestige and Brand Exposure Broken After Championship Seasons
Summary: I'd like to start off by saying i love the video game in itself and the gameplay changes. Faulty at times, however overall it's a better gameplay, with that said i notice a few key elements and thought i'd point them out. In Dynasty Mode, after multiple dominant seasons—including national championship wins—team prestige decreases, brand exposure randomly drops during the season, and playing style logic does not reflect on-field performance. These issues are reproducible and break the core loop of building a successful program. Platform: PS5 Mode: Solo Offline Dynasty Rosters: Default Active Roster Difficulty: Heisman Teams tested: Indiana, Baylor, South Carolina Starting Prestige: 3.5 stars Season 1 Results (Across All 3 Dynasties): 13-0 or 13-1 season Conference Championship Winner National Championship Appearance or Win Heisman Winner Multiple National Games of the Week Top 10 Recruiting Class What Happened: Team prestige dropped from 3.5 stars to 3.0 stars after season 1 Brand Exposure stayed at C (in one case increased to C+, but most stayed flat or dropped) Program Tradition remained unchanged Playing Style drops despite stat lines supporting the intended style (e.g. pass-heavy, run-heavy, etc.) Additional Issues: Brand Exposure Drops Midseason: After defeating top-10 ranked opponents on national TV, brand exposure sometimes randomly decreases. This directly affects recruiting—recruits will flag brand exposure as a dealbreaker even when your program is clearly performing at a high level. Playing Style Bugged (Roster and Recruits): Even after several dominant games consistent with a specific offensive or defensive identity, the Playing Style grade remains low and will not rise. This breaks alignment with recruits who are supposed to “match” your system and possibly affects progression/morale. Steps to Reproduce: Start a solo Dynasty with Indiana, Baylor, or South Carolina (3.5-star prestige) Play a full season: win 13+ games, conference championship, national championship or appearance Win Heisman, land top recruiting class Advance to Year 2 preseason Prestige drops to 3.0 stars Brand Exposure unchanged or drops Program Tradition does not increase Playing Style drops without logic Why This Matters: Prestige, brand exposure, and tradition are core to Dynasty progression. These bugs result in being punished for winning, losing out on key recruits, and having no long-term feedback loop to measure your program’s growth. In multi-user dynasties, it creates unfair gaps between users. In solo dynasties, it breaks immersion and realism. Questions for EA Devs: Is team prestige progression hardcoded or bugged in Year 1? Why is brand exposure dropping midseason despite high-profile wins? Is playing style currently functioning as intended, or is the logic broken? Questions for the Community: Have you seen prestige drop after winning a title? Is brand exposure decreasing during your seasons? Has your playing style rating dropped despite matching it in games? Let me know if you’d like screenshots or video examples—I’ve tested this across multiple dynasties Thanks.Immediately locked out in transfer portal
Has anyone else noticed that they are being locked out of almost every recruit. I have my transfer cap at 30 per team so there are usually around 2,800 in my portal however I could only bring in about 7 or 8 transfers last year because 90% were already in there top 5. That could make sense for the top top players in the portal however when it gets to the 3 stars and even some 4 stars, it gets ridiculous. Even 1 and 2 stars are in there top 5. At the beginning, the only thing that should stop you from recruiting any transfer should be a deal breaker. Let me at least get a chance in week one to bring some people in. I have seen so many 4 star transfer who because they were already in their top 5, no team offered them and no team in their top 5 offered them either meaning that once the transfer portal closed, these guys were deleted from the game. Some of these guys are big names in college football. my proposed solution is that if a player doesn’t have an offer, then their recruiting should be open. Now let’s say that a team has offered them and they had recruited them into a top 5 but then decided to remove their scholarship. My solution would make it so their recruitment would open up again so that they will would have a chance to go somewhere or another team who Wasn’t in their top 5 would have a chance on them. This would apply to high school recruits as well. Last year in CFB 25 I saw a 5 star who was removed from a team’s recruitment and they had locked everyone else out and ended not going anywhere. Another thing I would like to see fixed is that for every player who transfers out, you should be granted an extra scholarship spot when recruiting. Last year I had 51 players either graduate or transfer out, and because of the limit of 35 scholarships per year, I could only bring in 32 meaning I was stuck at 66 players in my roster. Even if I recruiting 35 players I would still not have anywhere near the amount of players I want and should be on a team. Now 32 recruits and transfers does feel like a lot so I should at least be able to choose from a list of walk ons to fill up my roster spots. Let me know what you think.
Dynasty Schedule Generation Sucks
I hate the schedule generation in this game. Almost every season it groups together all your road games and all your home games into straight weeks. Playing four straight home and then four straight away in conference. Then on top of that I played a dynasty with Texas A&M and through six seasons I played at Tennessee every year. Six straight years worth of games at Neyland Stadium. Also having four straight away games **bleep**s with your recruiting as you have to schedule visit all the towards the end of the season and by that point all of the Power schools have gobbled up all the five star and four star players leaving you nothing but lower four star and three start recruits. **bleep** like this ruins the immersion for me and is stupid annoying.Dynasty Pro Potential Still Bugged
I played as Michigan to test the pro potential bug. I had 6 players go to the NFL after year 1. The following year when I re-checked my pro potential it still said only 1 player has gone to the NFL. Even if this is bugged 1 player in the last four years went to the NFL from U of M? 2024-13 players 2025-9 players 2026-12 players If your going to add features like this please actually take the time to make it accurate/work. Now rebuilding teams will be impossible.Dynasty Suggestions for the future
I have to admit the feel of the whole games is much better than last year. I will enjoy figuring it all out as it goes along. However, I know that developers pay less attention to these boards the older they get, so a few things I would love to see added for the next year. A full coaching staff for each team. 105 man rosters 2 portal recruiting windows (allow players to be cut during the portal windows - so they would pop up in the portal as well) Recruiting points should cost less for local prospects in more than just visits. Scouting should be cheaper for local prospects, sending coaches, etc. I know this was said, but didn't seem to have an impact with the few teams I have run through so far. winter conditioning, spring practices, summer training, and fall camp. At a minimum allow for some depth by choosing what you have players work on. Pretty sure EA did this with baseball years ago. Quit relying on the player base to adjust the sliders for a realistic play of the game, this should be the base sliders when released. This is why you have Beta and probably should be used much earlier than you currently schedule it. Coach mode. Bring back a pure coach mode where I control the plays, but do not control the actual game play. I find that much more challenging when the sliders are right. (I will admit I do like that the QB will now take off and scramble if you use current coach mode on his own) Allow us to reset coach points after the end of the season if you are not going to allow us to max it out. Keep their base archetype, but allow us to redesign what seems to work best for us. Quit adding make believe players to rosters. If they are not full then leave them that way or use one you didn't include from that team. More annoying to have a random create a player on the rosters than the players who didn't opt in. This just give more slots to recruit the next year rather than some random name appearing on your roster. Allow renaming, deleting, or creating of conferences. Doesn't hurt to have the option. NIL is a big thing with college football now and it is not in the game... Allow full customization of fake players, race, hair, etc. You are generating way too many people who hail from the mountain of the caucasus in here. Change the way you handle ATH designation. Show what positions they are capable of and allow them to stay an athlete for two way play or change to a primary position. This would allow for the player to earn experience at both, but at a decreased amount for a player who is not primarily focusing on one position. Quit making position change stagnant. We should be able to change their position at any time during the year. It happens in real life so not sure why you are trying to make it more difficult then it needs to be. SUGGESTED BY ANOTHER USER - Transition to a subscription based product with micro transactions to keep the base game consistent and with fewer bugs. It would allow the player base to buy additional roster, past or future. SUGGESTED BY ANOTHER USER - Import draft classes to Madden. Would definitely require a section in their NIL agreement. SUGGESTED BY ANOTHER USER - Dynamic Pipeline's for dynasty. I would add dynamic rivalries here as well. SUGGESTED BY ANOTHER USER- Slider adjustments in game. SUGGESTED BY ANOTHER USER - Dynamic depth charts that adjust for your team's scheme. They need to put more effort into explaining the roles of positions and skill sets for certain positions. Most teams do not have a simple WR depth, but have 3 separate and distinct positions here. Typically WR-X, WR-Z, WR-SL. Each having different traits that particular coach wants for those positions. Same with multiple different looks on defense from teams ranging from heavy DB looks to heavy LB looks, but they are not the same and I think they have made the approach to defenses way too simplistic in comparison to the offense. One 3-3-5 is not like another as LB's and backend may be more focused on specific types for their purpose. Some have 2 LBs and a safety for the backers, others have 2 LBs and an athletic edge. I feel like they have slept on the complexity of the game by making the depth charts way too simplistic for what the game has evolved into. They need to be team specific too.More updates still needed
In CF25 we were able to motion our WRs and snap the ball during that motion at any given time. Which was a Major advantage for the offense, But in CF26 we have to wait until the WR is done with their motion to snap the ball. I believe this is an easy fix. Also in CF25 we were able to redirect a WR route during the middle of play on the field. Example: you are running away from pressure with the QB and the WR is running a quick out. In CF25 you were able to use R3 in any direction to redirect that WR route. I guess we can’t do that now in CF26? And one last thing, in Dynasty during the recruiting process, the small black box on the bottom right of the screen that pops up and announces the song artist and song title. It covers up the recruit’s “deal breaker” I understand that the box is only up there for a few seconds, but it happens very frequently and it’s becoming very annoying during the recruitment process. Please consider this small changes to the next patch update. Thank you!Fog of war recruiting idea/recruiting fixes
Im my opinion recruiting still lacks some immersion and gets boring really quick. One idea to fix this would be a fog of war style recruiting where you dont know exactly where you stand for a guy. You can see how many offers he has and if you've made his top 8,5,3 but never know exactly here you stand. This would require you to continue to invest into a recruit and feel the pain when losing him or making the effort worth it when you get him. Every recruit needs multiple offers it's too easy to offer a guy and not be forced to put any points into them because you know you are going to get him. Right now there is just not enough battles on the recruiting trail to make recruiting anything more than tedious, especially for smaller schools. One last thing, I need to be able to reorder my recruiting board when filtering by position. When im evaluating which qb I want to go after I shouldn't have to go to the overall recruiting board to adjust all the qbs so it shows up at the position level. Let me set a position by position ranking.