Latest news with #DynastyMode
Yahoo
17 hours ago
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
New College Football 26 Details on Dynasty Mode Revealed
The post New College Football 26 Details on Dynasty Mode Revealed appeared first on ClutchPoints. A new College Football 26 Dynasty Deep Dive has arrived, sharing tons of new information about the returning mode. For newcomers, Dynasty acts as the game's Franchise Mode. You control a coach on a College Football Football Team with the purpose of helping them win it all. This year, College Football 26 adds real coaches, but there's a lot more under the hood when it comes to Dynasty. College Football 26 Dynasty Deep Dive – Everything You Need To Know Overall, here's all the biggest details from the latest College Football 26 Deep Dive. Advertisement Real Coaches & Coach Progression Over 300 authentic coaches will be available to choose from in College Football 26. Replace Kirby Smart and become the next Georgia HC, or control Kirby Smart as you try to win his third National Championship. Each coach comes with their own playbook, scheme, play-calling tendencies, career stats, archetypes, and abilities. However, you can still create a coach, and CFB 26 offers more customization settings. From coach demeanor to stances, you can edit the look and emotions your coach conveys. In terms of gameplay, College Football increases the maximum coach level cap to 100 (previously 50). This will make the experience of upgrading your coach last longer as you try to upgrade everything. Additionally, EA Sports created a new level progression curve to help you level up early on. Advertisement Furthermore, the developer rebalanced all archetypes — Recruiter, Motivator, and Tactician. And the amount of XP needed from each perk scales by the tier of your archetype. Archetype cost also scales with each purchase. Additionally, abilities (and their costs) within archetypes have been rebalanced. Therefore, you'll need to think a bit more about which archetype would suit your playstyle and team best. Fortunately, staff members have their own active archetypes, contributing to your gains as well. But to really help with the rebalance, EA updated several archetype perks to help you earn XP. Choose the right coordinators to maximize your gains and build an incredible team. But keep in mind that you'll now need to unlock your archetype. You must reach a minimum level in order to unlock these archetypes, which in turn help your team. You won't be able to switch between archetypes so quickly now either, forcing you to really think about what you should choose. Advertisement Of course, some archetypes allow you to bend the rules a little bit, so keep on the lookout for our guide when the game comes out. When it comes to the carousel, EA Sports made a few updates. You now receive notifications when coordinators accept or decline offers. Furthermore, the same applies when current coordinators plan to leave you. To help with this, the game added new abilities to help you attract and keep the coordinators you want. Along with these changes comes rebalanced offer logic, as well as the option to see your coaching staff's previous jobs. Want to know if they were fired or just let go? The world is your oyster! The Trophy Room College Football 26 adds a Trophy Room where you can your accolades across a variety of modes. From every National Championship to every Heisman, all your records will be stored here for your viewing pleasure. Each Dynasty comes with their own Room to help keep info organized. Advertisement Overall, the game features 160 trophies to earn across four different categories. Recruitment, The Transfer Portal, & My School In College Football 26, players can expect to see roughly 2,000 players enter the transfer portal annually. To help compensate, they changed how they assigned star ratings to prospects. Now, their rating is more influenced by a player's position & class year. But as a coach, this means you need to keep your players satisfied. Whether it's through reps, success, brand exposure, and more, your players need to be convinced that your school is the best place for them. Advertisement Dealbreakers return, with the developers refining the system. It now factors in snaps played, regardless of where they sit on the depth chart. Not everyone's Dealbreaker will be playing time, but it still plays a role in their decision. This is especially the case for high-rated players. CFB 26 also introduces Dynamic Dealbreakers. Overall, this system takes into account that a player changes their demands over time. A five-star player want to focus on his brand, causing him to play elsewhere. But you can also alleviate these demands with certain abilities. But if you don't like how the current Transfer Portal System works, EA Sports added the following new settings for you to customize it with: Max Transfers Per Team – Anywhere from 0-30 (0 disables Transfer Portal) Adjust how many players can transfer from a single team (0–30). Setting this to 0 disables the portal entirely for a more traditional experience. Transfer Probability (User Teams): How likely a user team's player is to transfer Transfer Probability (CPU Teams): How likely the computer team's player is to transfer My School Grades return, with 14 categories for players to consider. These all affect your Team Prestige Grade, which represents how attractive you are as a program. This year, the developers lowered the amount of teams in the A and B grade range. They also added Pro Potential which represents how likely the program is to produce NFL talent. Advertisement The developers, also re-adjusted, and re-evaluated all the different Grades for every team to help reflect how they are for the upcoming season. Recruiting has also seen a big change. With Location Based Recruiting, it's cheaper to bring closer recruits to your facility. Conversely, it also costs more to bring in recruits from farther away. Now you will either be more flexible or restricted with your budget, depending on where your located. And if you coach in Hawaii, then we feel sorry for you. But like everything else, you can unlock certain abilities to maximize your scheduling efficiency and more. Additionally, the game made two major improvements to the scouting system: Re-ordered how attributes are displayed Expanded Mind Reader Ability and reveal Dev Trait directly through scouting But keep in mind that you'll battle with other teams to recruit the players you want. Recruiting battles now trigger if a school gets a commit but with another school right behind them. This creates a higher commitment threshold, giving both teams a small window to impress them one last time. Therefore, pull out all the punches when this phase strikes. Advertisement Speaking of recruits, there'll now over 4,000 recruits per season (4,100, specifically). To compensate for this, the developers rebalanced their physicals, mentals, attributes, and much more. However, there will be fewer top tier recruits for you to choose from, making the battles for them all the more exciting. Along with these rebalances comes with adjusted dealbreakers, player weight, and so much more to change up the experience. To help snag recruits from other teams, EA Sports improved the Sway mechanic. Overall, if a recruit really wants to play closer to home, you can sway them by showing them what your program has accomplished. Playing close to home is nice, but how about playing for a team that's produced a lot of NFL talent. This year, you now see the chances of your Sway success before beginning. This gives you a bit more confidence in each decision. When Sways are successful, you'll see so on the recruiting board. Advertisement Lastly, EA Sports made several quality of life improvements to the recruiting process: Team Needs now pinned on top of Prospects List Arrows to indicate whether you moved up or down a prospect's list. A Red Dot will notify you when new recruiting actions are available Favorite Recruits by double tapping triangle/Y New filter that lets you quickly look at your favorite recruits Advanced search filters: Player Progression, Abilities, & Training – College Football 26 Dynasty Details College Football 26 rebalances the way your favorite players progress on the field. Development traits play a bigger role in offseason progression. And speaking of the offseason, you'll see physical changes to player bodies after offseason workouts. Players with Impact, Star, and Elite Traits now progress faster, making them better to use in the long run. And if your school boasts a nice athletic facility, it'll help further development even more. Advertisement Players are only as good as their abilities, and this year, CFB 26 adds new abilities. In addition to new abilities comes new modified requirements to unlock them. You may need two attributes to have a certain rating before unlocking a higher-tier ability. Additionally, archetypes saw a huge overhaul. CFB 26 adds new player types, ergo, more physical combinations to increase the diversity of play styles. Players who perform extremely well can upgrade their Development trait in the offseason. While not guaranteed, it gives you extra incentive to reach that milestone with your player. It becomes more difficult with each tier your try to increase. Speaking of development, training results now provide more clear information on your player's growth. This gives you a good idea of where they've improved with each practice. Advertisement When it comes to manual progression, you have the option to enable that in the league settings. This feature lets you earn Skill Points which you can use to upgrade their attributes. In the Player Card, you can see a player's full stats, and which ones you want to improve. But keep in mind that using this feature nerfs your progression by 25% (However, this is fully customizable). Depth Chart Positions, Player Health, & Sub Formations – College Football 26 Dynasty Details Players can change their positions in CFB 26, but there's things to keep in mind. They must develop into the role, and will only maintain abilities that both positions share. However, you can adjust their skill group caps baed on how close the new position is to the old one. Fortunately, the game lets you know in advance what will be affected before each move. Advertisement Wear & Tear returns to College Football 26, with some big expansive changes. Firstly, the game now has Season & Career Health pools for you to watch over. They determine how much a player recovers over the season and their career. When a player recovers, it draws from these health pools. Once that pool depletes, they can no longer recover for the rest of the season. Health changes Season to Season. If you have a nearly empty health pool one year, you'll start the next season with a small health pool. Therefore, you really need to manage player health in order to keep them safe for their whole career. These details are available almost anywhere in Dynasty. Subs saw some nice changes in CFB 26. Firstly, the game features four new sub strategies to choose from: Advertisement Keep Fresh – Rotate players often to limit damage Normal – Balanced rotation Grind It Out: Players stay on field no matter what Custom: Use a variety of sliders and settings to completely customize the Wear & Tear System Additionally, College Football 26 adds new positions to the game. Like Madden 26, you'll have access to the SAM, WILL, and MIKE Linebackers. Additionally, you'll have Nose Tackles and Long Snappers, increasing your versatility. Players also can use Formation Subs to make their roster alignment more convenient. New Teams, Old History – College Football 26 Dynasty Details Two new Schools are coming to College Football 26 – Missouri State and Delaware. This expands the list of teams to 136. Furthermore, the game is adding a new feature called College Football History. This hub allows you to view all sorts of stats going as far back as 1869. See all the National Champions, Conference Champions, Player award winners,, and much more. From Heisman winners to champions of every division, you'll see almost everything you need to know. Advertisement This information updates too with every season. So continue to make history with your school! You can also see a player's individual awards on their player card. Additionally, the game added 14 new awards, including the Maxwell Award & Walter Camp Award. Additionally, the developers adjusted how defensive stats are evaluated. Plus, stat tracking has been expanded giving you access to more information with much more convenience. Quality of Life Improvements – College Football 26 Dynasty Details The Following Quality of Life Improvements also make their way to Dynasty: Updated Tiebreaker logic, which considers: Added columns to show team's point differential and average margin of victory Deeper stat tracking Across all positions and sides of the ball Expanded Archetypes (59 now) Quick Access to player info & schedules Easier Access to player stats and attributes Members Tab to see every user and coach character in a Dynasty. Custom Conferences, Schedules, & More – College Football 26 Dynasty Details In College Football 26 Dynasty, you can now set and lock protected opponents. This allows you to lock-in annual matchups and ensure certain games always happen. Advertisement The developers also added all known schedules and kickoffs through 2040, ensuring a higher level of authenticity. Furthermore, they event accounted for annual updates. Florida vs. Georgia will no longer be played in Jacksonville in 2026 and 2027, and the game will reflect that change. Additionally, they updated conference rotations for the MAC and Conference USA conferences. And speaking of authenticity, the newest playoff format arrives to CFB 26. Play in the new CFP format before it happens in real life this July! Crossplay For Dynasty Mode in College Football 26 Perhaps the best detail of all, Online Dynasty is now cross-play enabled. This means you can play with friends on another system and fight both for a natty and a console war. Advertisement Overall, that includes all the major updates in College Football 26's Dynasty Mode. We're pretty impressed with what we've seen. EA Sports has clearly put a lot of work in upgrading the authenticity of the game. But we'll see if it all comes together in the final product. Lastly, for more gaming and NCAAF news, visit ClutchPoints. Furthermore, subscribe to our gaming newsletter for more weekly info. Related: F1 25 Update Fixes Bugs In Career, Braking Point, & Other Modes Related: College Football 26 presentation, uniform, & more details revealed
New York Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
College Football 26 Dynasty mode upgrades, plus BYU just did it again
Until Saturday Newsletter 🏈 | This is The Athletic's college football newsletter. Sign up here to receive Until Saturday directly in your inbox. Today in college football news, it's the 10th birthday of the greatest pop album ever, 'Emotion' by Carly Rae Jepsen. I might prefer 'Dedicated Side B,' though. Absolutely, it's time to lead the newsletter with the video game again. (Though if you're not into the video game, there's other stuff below. And to be fair, it's June.) Moments ago, EA Sports released the second 'deep dive' video previewing the upcoming followup to the record-setting College Football 25, this time highlighting new features in Dynasty mode — aka the team-management mode, aka the mode in which some of us will once again spend 99 percent of our time with this game. Meanwhile, Chris Vannini and David Ubben, who've spent a good bit of time with the July 10 release, just discussed some of their favorite new Dynasty features … David: 'We're underrating how much having real coaches (more than 300 head coaches and coordinators) will add a new element to the game as a whole and, specifically, Dynasty mode. When you create a coach, it often feels like you're stepping into a fantasy version of college football. Adding player names helped make it more real, and coaches will make it even more so.' … and their hopes for further improvement: Chris: 'There will finally be protected opponents. You can select one or two in a conference. This was announced for last year but pulled at the last minute. … I still miss the ability to take control of games not involving your team.' I'm most interested in what appears to be improved recruiting (like a busier transfer portal and my team's position needs appearing right up top, rather than on a separate screen) and the series regaining some historical record-keeping (the return of your own Trophy Room, along with an ever-updating list of national champions from 1869 onward, which some of us are carefully scrutinizing by comparing to the champs crowned in 2017 by the Colley Matrix and in 1984 by the University of Alabama). Also, when I read this sentence by Robby Kalland at CBS, I literally fist-pumped: 'Pro Potential got a tweak so it doesn't just evaluate the talent you have on the roster at present, but factors in your draft results for the past four seasons.' No longer will my Colorado State Rams or FIU Panthers be punished for going a year without a draft pick in between first-round Biletnikoff winners. (A correction: Last week, I described mass substitutions as being 'absent' from last year's edition. It was absent at launch, when I put in the far majority of my hours, but was patched in a bit later. Still, this year's game looks like it has better lineup management.) 🧑🌾 'In some crazy way, I enjoy all the crazy stuff that's going on the last couple of years here with our game and the landscape and all that. It's almost like a challenge.' 😺 Half a year after BYU gained a nationally televised commitment from No. 1 men's basketball recruit AJ Dybantsa, the Cougars moments ago did it again with five-star Ryder Lyons, who'd been the top uncommitted 2026 QB. 📖 The SEC has quite a bit of QB hype this year. One more name to add: Texas A&M's Marcel Reed, as Ralph Russo explains. 💰 Last week, Wisconsin sued Miami, alleging NIL-related tampering. I agree with the story's top commenter: 'They should allow players to switch schools during halftime.' 💎 Sunday, LSU won its eighth men's College World Series title, though the primary excitement was Coastal Carolina's manager and first-base coach being ejected almost immediately for what seemed like very normal levels of baseball yelling. In a championship elimination game! As the Zombie Pac-12 continues to rebuild its media profile (more CBS, along with ESPN and The Almighty CW, as detailed in a new story by Vannini), it also still needs to add one more team in order to count as an NCAA football conference. Having said that, I think the Pac-12 should just stick at seven. What's the NCAA gonna do about it? Exist? Still, let's say the Pac-12 follows the rules. Currently, Texas State is the clear favorite, with its school president even teasing an image of beavers (as in, Oregon State's mascot) in the Bobcats' San Marcos River. Okay, if that happens, then what? Why, here's Vannini yet again: 'The Sun Belt would likely move quickly and replace Texas State with Louisiana Tech, Western Kentucky or Middle Tennessee from Conference USA, according to a person briefed on the Sun Belt's thinking. CUSA is set to expand this year to 12 schools by adding Delaware and Missouri State from the Football Championship Subdivision. If the league did lose a school and try to backfill, it wouldn't be able to add another FCS program until 2027 at the earliest because of the FCS-FBS transition process.' Oh, fun fact: TXST actually wouldn't be the Pac-12's easternmost member. Lest we forget the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, an affiliate member for wrestling. Conference champs, in fact. All hail Little Rock, the Pac-12's only Trojans. Email me at untilsaturday@ with thoughts on which team even further east should join the Pac-12. Last week's most-clicked: Lots of you clicked this story about former NFL players chuckling at tabloid star Bill Belichick, you haters!
New York Times
4 days ago
- Entertainment
- New York Times
EA Sports College Football 26: What's new in Dynasty? What we like and still want to see
EA Sports has slow-played the announcement of new features and adjustments to game modes for College Football 26, the second installment of the revival of its college football video game, but as the July 10 release date gets closer, we can finally talk about the foundational part of the game: Dynasty mode. Advertisement On Tuesday, EA Sports released deeper details about the mode. The Athletic's Chris Vannini visited EA Sports in late May for a first look at the new features. Chris and David Ubben also spent two days with a beta version of the game earlier this month, so they have thoughts on the changes to Dynasty. This is not a full review of the game, which will come around the release date. Here, let's address the biggest changes, what we like, what we're unsure about and what we'd like to see in Dynasty mode. Chris: David, I've always been a Dynasty guy since I was a kid, more than online play or Road to Glory. So when CFB 25 came out last year, I was glad to see Dynasty was one of the pillars in bringing the game back. But it wasn't complete. It wasn't that deep of an experience compared to older games. We've both spent some time with Dynasty for CFB 26, so let's talk about what's new, starting with the larger experience. The Trophy Room is back, though I didn't get to test it in beta. The game includes more history, like every winner of every conference championship and individual trophy. Game commentators will update you on scores across the country. You can customize max transfers per team and wear and tear. What about the experience changes do you like most? David: Last year, I started at South Florida before taking the Minnesota job and eventually finding a home at Ole Miss. But around the third year there, my schedule was broken. And not the nonconference schedule you can customize before you begin the season. One year, I played six of my eight SEC games at home. The next year, I was on the road for six of eight. I'm looking forward to that change in the new game and not having to worry about that while also having better protected rivalry games. The Trophy Room will add some depth, though I'd also like to see an option to watch highlights from the game that won you that trophy. It would add a lot for me to go back and reminisce and watch players real and fake that I grew to love in the game. Advertisement I'm glad to see they've made a commitment to 1) adding the real awards from college football that were absent from last year's game and 2) fixing how they're awarded. It's not a huge deal, but it was annoying in last year's game when my running back with 800 yards and 12 touchdowns would win the Best Running Back award. What stood out to you about the new scheduling fixes? Chris: There will finally be protected opponents. You can select one or two in a conference. This was announced for last year but pulled at the last minute. I played around with this in beta a few weeks ago. The protected opponents were randomized, and the process of changing them was a bit cumbersome, though it's possible it was off just because it was an old beta model. But I like having this. I still miss the ability to take control of games not involving your team in the old NCAA days. Chris: Let's talk coaches. I'll let you talk about real coaches in the game, but fans will be happy to know that user-created coaches have a lot more gear to choose from. There are several kinds of hoodies and quarter-zips. There are shorts and sweater vests. There are sleeveless shirts (shout out to former Charlotte coach Biff Poggi). Coaches can also have demeanors and stances. This was fun to play around with. David: The limited coach apparel options in last year's game didn't really matter, but it was a bit of a bummer. No such issue in this year's game. Those options really pop in the new version. It's a huge upgrade. For future suggestions, what about customizing your coach gear for each game like the team jerseys in the game menu screen? It's been one of the selling points of the game, but I think we're underrating how much having real coaches (more than 300 head coaches and coordinators) will add a new element to the game as a whole and, specifically, Dynasty mode. When you create a coach, it often feels like you're stepping into a fantasy version of college football. Adding player names helped make it more real, and coaches will make it even more so. Advertisement It's already surreal to see the virtual versions of coaches. Kirby Smart and Marcus Freeman were among those in EA Sports' recent deep dive releases and looked great. But Lane Kiffin crossed over into the uncanny valley that had me laughing. I can't wait to run into some of these coaches and coordinators and see who looks like the Cristiano Ronaldo bust. This game has always been about immersion but there were limitations in the past. Those limitations are getting fewer and fewer. Chris: We didn't have any real coaches in beta, but when I was in Orlando, I didn't see Bill Belichick or Deion Sanders, for what it's worth. Belichick never opted into Madden, so that wouldn't be a surprise. I found the coaching carousel to be more active and interesting, which people asked for. If you're mad at your coordinator in real life, let some steam off and fire him in the game. And your coordinator skills matter more now too. Again, the beta was an older model, so I got the Arizona State job after a 5-7 season at North Texas, but offers can change week to week. You can also see where every coach went and whether they were fired, took another college job or went to the NFL. You get more notifications on your coordinators. You can see a coach's career record and their history, and they have a prestige grade. Coach skill levels can now go up to 100, and there are new talents. Being a recruiter coach gives you more visits for recruiting. It'll also cost more points to become a well-rounded coach, cheaper to improve in your designated skills. I'm not super into that part of the game, but for those who are, it's deeper. Chris: This is always a hot-button issue in Dynasty. I didn't love recruiting in the final few NCAA games because it took too much work. CFB 25 was a major improvement on that front, but the experience was mixed. Some people could get blue-chippers to Group of 5 schools. It took me time to figure out the right strategy. But some easy quality-of-life improvements in CFB 26 include your 'needs' list already on the main screen, rather than having to hit buttons to find it, and a larger transfer portal. Very helpful. You're not a big recruiting guy, but any thoughts? Advertisement David: Last year, recruiting was incredibly deep. This year, somehow they made it even deeper. It's hard to see recruitniks not loving what EA has done. But they also understand the sport. I appreciate they're not plugging stuff into a spreadsheet. They noted in the deep dive that an 85-rated senior guard is going to have a different star rating for a transfer than an 85-rated freshman quarterback. That's the portal. That's the current world of college football. Future eligibility and position have a massive impact on your value. This franchise isn't without flaws, but it's also a massive undertaking. The thing that I appreciate the most about its revival is the people in charge understand and love college football and are trying to put that in the game. Little touches like that show ways they can do that. Chris: Similarly, I like that the cost of a visit will now depend on the distance. That incentivizes local recruiting, just like real life. I still wish we could create a prospect like the old days, but that remains missing, with the focus instead on Road To Glory. The last big thing we haven't mentioned: Dynasty is now crossplay, meaning Xbox and PlayStation 5 players can now use that mode together. That's good for me as an Xbox person. You and I have only played online games against each other. Now we can find out who's actually the better program builder. David: That's a question with an easy answer. (Images courtesy of EA Sports)
New York Times
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
College Football 26 deep dive includes major fix. Plus: MWC title drama
Until Saturday Newsletter 🏈 | This is The Athletic's college football newsletter. Sign up here to receive Until Saturday directly in your inbox. Today in college football news, absolutely, I will try the Takis Fuego Wendy's meal. The first official 'deep dive' video on EA Sports' upcoming College Football 26 is here, narrated by Kirk Herbstreit and focusing on gameplay. A video on Dynasty Mode will follow on Tuesday. It shows off what looks to be improved blocking, tackling, pass rushing and so forth, along with new wrinkles for QBs (shorter passers will be affected more by taller linemen, for instance). That's all fine and good, suggesting several key improvements to the series' comeback edition last year, some of them addressing pretty common complaints. (In particular, following your blockers in last year's game often felt like navigating the Lost Woods in a Zelda game.) There are also '2,800-plus new plays,' going along with the game's '300-plus real coaches,' the first 300-plus real coaches to ever appear in an EA Sports game, other than Bill Walsh's mid-'90s bootleg editions. But among all this razzle dazzle, I (and so many other nerds) am most excited about mass substitutions, a typical feature in sports games, but one that was absent last year. Yep, while winning by 38 and wanting to get your second-stringers some playing time, you had to manually bench every last starter individually. Now you can send out mass lineup changes, plus configure how much 'wear and tear' players at each position group are allowed to take before automatically having a seat. Punters, I am expecting iron-man hero ball from you. The game comes out July 10. I am going to substitute so many masses. What are you excited about? Let us know. ICYMI, here's Chris Vannini on other new stuff in the game this year. 🎬 'I've been a celebrity in this state for over 30 years.' Extremely rare thing to hear from a MAC coach, but when 1995 Heisman Trophy winner and 2000 NFL All-Pro Eddie George says it, it's undeniable. Hey, did you know Bowling Green's new head coach is also an actor? Let Cameron Teague Robinson tell you all about it. Advertisement 💎 A College World Series finale fitting this chaotic baseball season: No. 6 LSU vs. No. 13 Coastal Carolina, beginning tomorrow at 7 p.m. ET on ESPN. It will be either the Tigers' eighth title (still second behind USC, though the Trojans have won it just once since 1978) or the Chanticleers' second (2016). 🌽 Still have to remind yourself Dana Holgorsen is at Nebraska as OC? Well, he might actually be in Austria, Greece or Mexico right now, but you know what I mean. 🧢 Tennessee, Houston and Texas QB commits were among the stars at what Bruce Feldman calls one of the best Elite 11 crops he's seen in decades. 🦓 'The Athletic spoke with more than a dozen people in charge of and around officiating. Almost all said officiating is better than it's ever been, that the correct call percentage is somewhere around 98 percent, though some say it hasn't improved enough or become consistent enough with technology. Coaches' feelings are mixed.' If the Boise State Broncos win the Mountain West again this year before leaving to turn the Pac-12 into Basically The Mountain West, they'll leave with seven MWC titles in their 14 years as a member. Colorado State, Fresno State, San Diego State and Utah State are also leaving with the Broncos after this season. Since 2010, the only team outside this group to have won the MWC was San Jose State in 2020. Odds are good that, this December, defending league champ Boise State will make like 2011 CM Punk (or 2023 SMU, Texas and Washington) and leave with the title. Despite the departure of Ashton Jeanty, one of history's greatest Heisman runners-up, FPI grades the Broncos as FBS' single biggest conference favorite, with 45.6 percent odds of repeating. But how's this for a tidy storyline: No. 5 on the list of the nation's biggest conference favorites is Dan Mullen's UNLV (37.7 percent) — the team that spurned the zombie Pac-12 to stick around as the neon star of next year's zombie MWC. This season, UNLV-Boise (round one?) is on Oct. 18. Advertisement Now let's turn to region expert Chris Kamrani with a couple Qs. In your recent UNLV story, Mullen said, 'I've always thought this could be a sleeping giant here.' The Rebels have always ranked right behind UNC at making people say that. After last year's run and this big hire, is there reason to believe it's finally happening? 'It boils down to how much you believe in Mullen as a program builder. He did it at Mississippi State at a level never seen before, but failed to do the same when the stakes were much higher at Florida. Mullen is taking over a winning culture cultivated by former head coach Barry Odom, but the Rebels lost a ton of talent to graduation, especially on the defensive side of the ball. If you remember, UNLV did as good of a job on Jeanty as anyone in the country last year, and did so twice. 'Mullen's bread-and-butter will always be on offense. That's what will ultimately determine if UNLV can win the Mountain West. He landed former Virginia starting QB Anthony Colandrea and former Michigan QB Alex Orji. He's loaded up on receivers in the portal, because, duh. Players know Mullen's offense can be symphonic. They have accumulated talent to help them compete with the alpha of their world, Boise State. Now it's about waking that snoozing giant Mullen speaks of.' All things considered, Bronco Mendenhall going .500-ish at Virginia and New Mexico is probably about as impressive as him going 8-4 or 9-3 at BYU. Do you imagine him sticking around at Utah State long enough to build something better than .500-ish? 'I can't think of a more head-scratching move in the coaching carousel in recent years than Mendenhall returning to the state of Utah. I guess there have been others that made my scalp itch. And they all involve Mendenhall. I was stunned when he left BYU for Virginia and more stunned when he returned to coaching in Albuquerque. Bronco has always marched to the beat of his own drum. 'Building a winner in Logan will be a tall task. Utah State has been relevant in the MWC twice in the last decade. The talent on the roster had slipped in recent years. But one trait Mendenhall has is adaptability. He's a defensive-minded coach who had high-octane offenses at BYU. Just last year, despite New Mexico's average season, the Lobos ranked fourth in the country in total offense. I'm going to assume USU will be Mendenhall's last stop as a college football head coach. If I were a betting person, which I am not, I would say he'll have the Aggies in conference contention in a few years' time.' And now let's lateral the ball to Stewart Mandel for some mailbag before we head out for the weekend: Will the new CEO (Bryan Seeley) of the College Sports Commission publicize what the penalties will be moving forward for improper NIL or under-the-table recruiting enticements? — Nick K. All we've gotten are some nebulous quotes from administrators assuring us the penalties will be 'substantive,' 'stiff,' and 'severe.' Either this is the most leakproof endeavor in the history of college athletics, or, more likely, they're not finished devising them. While we're at it, here's a list of some other specifics notably missing so far about a body that we're being told will get the NIL landscape fully under control and fundamentally change how the enterprise operates. I've got more, but I'll hang up and listen for now. (More Mandel mailbag here.)
Forbes
29-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
EA College Football 26: 5 Things We Didn't Learn From The Reveal
EA College Football 26 There were a ton of details revealed on EA College Football 26 on Thursday, but there were at least five important things we didn't learn from the initial reveal. In case you missed it, here is a look at the official trailer announcing the game, which drops on July 10 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. Last year's game had very few disappointments, but one significant issue was the inability to freely edit or create players. The level of customization that could be done to NIL players was minimal. This is somewhat understandable, considering the layers of obstacles EA had to overcome to bring college football back and to have real players. However, I'm unsure why users were limited in the way of options for created players' uniform numbers, names, and more. Once I start a Dynasty mode, I should have the freedom to change anything I want, especially if it's a local change exclusive to my PlayStation or Xbox. I'd love if those rosters were shareable, but I'd understand if that functionality was blocked for now. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder I'm waiting to see if users will have more freedom on this front. It's great to see real coaches in the game. That will add another layer of legitimacy and immersion to the product. However, I'd like to be able to create new coaches and to replace the real ones if I choose. Having this option is along the same lines as editing and creating new players. We'll likely have to take some baby steps to get there, so I'm not expecting to have this in this year's game. Hopefully, it's on the roadmap. Last year's game had a good number of legends, but there were some obvious omissions. We know Reggie Bush, Tim Tebow, and Denard Robinson will be in the game, but what about people like Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, and Tom Brady? Ultimate Team fans would pop for those legends. While having those legends added to Ultimate Team would be great, having the legends available throughout the game would be even better. In College Football and Madden, I would happily pay for the legends as DLC. I'd spend $19.99 without hesitation to have access to all legends in Dynasty and Franchise mode. And I don't think I'm alone. Let's see if this is the year EA allows users to have legends outside of Ultimate Team. This is one of the biggest questions for me. I won't go on a rant about how awesome it was to export graduating classes from NCAA Football into Madden back in the day. Most people reading this article already know that's the case. The question is: will this feature return to EA College Football 26? My fingers are crossed, but I must admit, I'm not overly optimistic. It feels like this feature would have been mentioned in the initial reveal if it were a part of this year's game. Until we hear an official word, I'll hold out some hope. However, as I mentioned, don't hold your breath.
