Tradition is everything when it comes to college sports. It’s what separates it from many others in the American sports landscape, even from its professional counterparts. And if fans of the College Football series are sticklers for anything, it’s immersion. And in order to properly immerse such fans, the music has to be accurate and true to what they’re accustomed to seeing on Saturday nights.
The reveal trailer for College Football 26 already revealed one major development when it comes to songs that will be featured when the game ultimately releases in July. But what other new songs have been confirmed for the title? And what song is oddly missing pre-release?
Also, for anyone who wants to keep up with every little detail of the teams featured in College Football, check out the Google Doc made by OS’ very own Soldice. He’s awesome and does awesome work!
Every New Song In College Football 26
Obviously, there are way too many colleges in College Football 26 to speculate how many will be receiving their songs, and which ones will still be using generic music. That said, we can confirm at least five new songs that will be present in the game. For one, “Enter Sandman” by Metallica — a Virginia Tech staple — is featured in the reveal trailer for the game. Other sources have indicated that even more songs will be featured in College Football 26. Here’s every new song featured:
- “Enter Sandman” – Metallica (Virginia Tech)
- “Mr. Brightside” – The Killers (Michigan)
- “Shipping Up to Boston” – Dropkick Murphys (Notre Dame, Boston College)
- “Also sprach Zarathustra (2001: A Space Odyssey)” – Richard Strauss (South Carolina)
- “Seven Nation Army” – The White Stripes — This could be used by multiple teams, and since we know the school bands are going to play some songs, this could be one of those as well.
- “FE!N” – Travis Scott — This one might be here in part because Travis Scott had a cool halftime spot for the CFP National Championship (even if he didn’t perform “FE!N” for it), but it’s also another song that can be used in various stadiums.
Obviously, this is an incomplete list, and it’s very possible that EA Sports has a few surprises for us upon College Football 26‘s release (and we’ll be sure to keep this article updated upon the release of such information).
It’s also worth mentioning in this section that the menu music will be varied this year rather than just drumlines turned up to max volume. EA was a good sport about the meme in their write-up:
We know how much people loved drumlines from the menu last year… we are going to change it up for College Football 26. We’re bringing new Marching Band covers of popular songs to our menus for players to enjoy. As well as Fight Songs from schools around the country.
Every Song That Was Featured From Last Year
If there’s one thing about licensing music, it’s that it’s tricky and typically done temporarily. One of the most infamous examples of such is Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, which was missing dozens of songs that were included with the original games due to licensing issues.
That is to say that just because a song is featured in a game one year, it doesn’t mean that it will be featured in upcoming releases. The College Football series is no exception, and any songs featured in CFB 25 aren’t a lock to return in CFB 26.
That said, here are the songs that were featured in College Football 25, which will hopefully be joining the new additions this year:
- “Welcome to the Jungle” – Guns N’ Roses
- “Sandstorm” – Darude (South Carolina)
- “Zombie Nation” – Kernkraft 400 (UCF, among others)
- “Tsunami” – DVBBS & Borgeous (Army)
- “Mo Bamba” – Sheck Wes (Penn State, among others)
- “Iowa Wave Song” – Pat Green (Iowa)
One Notable Song Is Not Yet Featured In College Football 26
With the inclusion of new songs for individual colleges, many CFB players have begun speculating about what other songs could be featured in the game upon its release. One of the biggest talking points is “Jump Around” by House of Pain, which is famously played in between the third and fourth quarters at Wisconsin Badgers games.
According to Andy Staples of On3 Sports, however, “Jump Around” is not featured in the latest build of the game. “They still don’t have Jump Around in the version I played today,” Staples said in a quote tweet on X. “The crowd at Wisconsin jumps between quarters 3 and 4 but the song wasn’t playing.”
Now, while some people will be upset by this news, all hope isn’t lost. Remember what I said about music licensing? To put it as succinctly as I possibly can, licensing music can be done in a pretty quick time period, so long as both parties are satisfied. The fact that the Wisconsin fans do currently have the jumping tradition associated with the song could mean that a deal to bring “Jump Around” into College Football 26 could be ongoing. Yes, there is the possibility that “Jump Around” ultimately doesn’t make it into the game. But these types of situations are pretty fluid and subject to change at the drop of a hat.
