We defend College Football 26 a lot here at Operation Sports, especially when it comes to countering criticism from people who don’t seem to understand the point of the game to begin with. But, despite us as a collective having an affinity for sports games that are tailored to the single-player experience, that doesn’t mean that we don’t see flaws and issues with the game. And trust me, there are plenty to observe.
In fact, if you were to go over to the Operation Sports forums right now (which I highly recommend because it’s the best community in gaming for my money), you’ll see a slew of topics on the board about various games and the issues that some players have encountered when playing them. College Football 26 is no different.
As players have gotten more acclimated to this year’s game, several issues have been documented by the OpSports community. And some of them are pretty bad.
College Football 26 Has Quite A Few AI-Related Issues That Need Fixing
In a post made by OS user TDogg097 (whom we’ll call “Tee” from here on in), many complaints about AI-controlled teams were made. One example provided involved a team being down by 19 points in the third quarter. After being forced into a fourth-down situation, the AI-controlled team had a choice: Go for it, or kick a 55-yard field goal to attempt to make it a two-possession game.
The thing is, the AI chose to do neither of these things. Instead, they sent the punt unit out, who proceeded to shank the punt and give their opponents respectable field position. “Not a single coach at any level of football is doing that,” Tee said.
Tee also provided two other examples of baffling AI decisions, but they weren’t the only ones. OS veteran Miles Perry recounted a situation where the opponent punted from the 26-yard line. One of the most respectable and notable members of OS, canes21, also weighed in. “The CPU is very conservative, which isn’t realistic given how modern college football is played and dictated by analytics these days,” Cane said. And it went on, and on, and on, and on, from multiple people, talking about multiple different issues.
Considering the passion we all collectively have for the CFB series here at OpSports, it’s concerning. Were we maybe looking at CFB 25 last year with rose-tinted glasses because of the void it filled? Or is CFB 26 a legitimate step back for the series? I mean, it’s not like AI is the only thing out of whack — Archetypes are kinda messed up right now, too.
We know for a fact that the team that develops CFB is a passionate group and legitimately wants to make the best game possible. But some of these issues are, quite frankly, unacceptable for a football sim in 2025.
There’s work to be done, and we hope the team over at EA delivers the goods with their next few updates.
