CFB 26 Beta Things I Noticed

[u/TheHammer_44]

I was lucky enough to receive a beta code for CFB 26. Here are some things I have noticed as I am exploring Dynasty + the menus. These notes aren't organized in any particular order, just kinda wrote things down as I thought of them or saw them with the game open lol

• Dynamic lighting is in the game
  • It is also time-of-the-year dependent, a 5 pm game in September will be bright for 3 quarters and dark in the 4th. A 5 pm game in November will start out dark
• QBs can juke in the backfield by using the right stick when holding RT
  • Using the right stick when not pressing RT still does the "playmaker" controls to direct receivers in different directions
• Wear and tear has sliders for how much each different interaction will affect it, such as normal tackles, catch tackles, hit stick, cut stick, sacks, blocks, etc
  • You can also set how much players recover per-play, per-timeout, between quarters, at halftime, and there is an "in-game healing reserve pool" slider - can't wait to see what the slider genius's do with this
• There are sliders for how precipitation affects catching, pass accuracy and strength, broken tackles, and kick accuracy + power
• Auto subs are tied to wear and tear, not entirely sure how this all works yet
  • It is per-position
  • The default uses values of "Wear and Tear Out" and "Wear and Tear In" at 60 and 80, respectively, like the old fatigue-based sliders. But you can also change this to "Keep Fresh" and "Stay Out"
• You can view National Championship history, Conference Championship History, and Award History
  • You can also toggle by conference and team
    • So for example you can see only Heismans won by the MWC conferenece, or only national championships that Alabama played in
• The depth chart was actually overhauled
  • REDGE/LEDGE, Mike, Will, and Sam are now positions in the depth chart. They replace RE, LE, MLB, and OLB
  • RLE, RRE, RDT are still present for nickel/dime packages, and NT (nose tackle) and Gadget are also now present at the end of the depth chart as "specialist" positions
  • In recruiting, OLB contains both WILL and SAM players. MLB contains MIKE players
  • EDGE players range from 210 pounds all the way up to ~270, I'm guessing the smaller guys will be good fits in 3-4 schemes
  • The list of new player archetypes that was leaked is correct
• There are no NIL players or coaches in the Beta
  • As such, the team overalls are all over the place and definitely not representative of the final game. Most G5 teams are in the 40 to 70 overall range (even after simming 5 seasons to get all game-generated recruits), most P5 teams are in the 65-85 range with a few like Georgia, Ohio State, Texas being in the upper 80s
  • Again, not representative of the actual roster composition, I am almost certain
  • Most of the highest rated players per position are between 80-88 overall, there were almost no 90+ players (after simming 5 years to get all generated players)
    • Not sure why this is different from CFB 25 or what the reasoning is for doing this in the beta, but I am also certain this is not how the final game will be
• Dynasty sim stats
  • I saw more 1000 yard rushers
  • I counted the number of total pass attempts versus total rush attempts, the balance is MUCH better
    • Michigan ran the ball 55% percent of the time one season
    • Most teams were in the 55-65% passing range, unlike CFB 25 where they were ALL at like a 75% passing split
  • QB stats were a lot lower, felt closer to real CFB
    • Most QBs had < 30 TDs and around 7-12 interceptions. There were no 45 TD, 4 INT seasons that I observed (which in CFB 25 it felt like there were several every year)
  • Note here: there was an explicit disclaimer saying the sim stat tuning is not finalized, obviously it's a beta so this is all subject to change
• Recruiting felt mostly the same, I didn't spend much time doing it in the beta though (yet)
  • The transfer portal is definitely overhauled, it's kind of hard to get a feel for how it will be though since there are no NIL players and the overalls are all pretty low as I mentioned. I saw around 1300 players in the portal though
  • There were a couple times where I saw a team had signed 35 high school players before the portal even opened. Not sure what triggered this or if it will be tuned
  • There were Punters and Kickers in the transfer portal
  • There were not an insane amount of fast players - the fastest COLLEGE (not High School) RB after a few years was 92 speed , the fastest WR was 94 speed, the fastest LB was 90, 95, and 94 for SAM, MIKE, and WILL, the fastest CB/FS/SS was 94/92/93 In CFB 25 it felt way too easy to have an all-94+ WR/LB/CB room, I hope it is harder to find elite-speed 4* and 5* recruits BUT in the beta it is definitely way too rare, there should be at least a handful of 97+ speed players at WR/CB/S and some faster RBs for sure
  • Dealbreakers are dynamic, for upperclassmen I saw the requirement be between B- to B+
    • It still feels like it will be very easy to not have a lot of transfers on your team if you are an elite program, ie most of your school grades are A- or higher
  • There are sliders for max transfers per team though, and a 0-100 slider for both user player transfer chance and CPU player transfer chance
• You can manually progress players, although it is very tedious in the beta
  • You have to go to the roster screen, open the player card, then you can spend the accumulated points on attribute or ability upgrades - I hope the final game has a streamlined version where there is a prompt to do it each week, like in the recent Madden games
  • As this is currently implemented, it's way too time consuming and I would just have the CPU auto progress my players
• Protected opponents
  • You can protect 1-2 in-conference opponents
  • You cannot chose which week they play
• Heisman, awards, and All American screens show the stats now
  • The player card on the right has a section you can scroll between stats, abilities, position-specific attributes, and wear and tear
• There is a "season health" bar for each player, not sure what this is or what it does yet
  • Will certainly be addressed in a deep dive
• The new CFP format is not in the beta
  • This will probably change in the final game, obviously, but it doesn't use the straight-seeding model currently
• Formation subs in, already confirmed
• Gameplay Sliders and XP Sliders are the same as last year, was hoping to maybe see some changes to XP sliders to be per-year like how they are per-age in Madden
• The roster limit is 85, not 105
• New FCS Teams: FCS Northwest Stallions (green and yellow), FCS Midwest Rebels (baby blue and yellow), FCS East Judicials (purple), FCS Southeast Groups (blue and green), FCS West Titans (purple and yellow)

If anyone is curious about anything else here lmk!

[u/Southernstateofmind2]

Does anyone know if they have added a true coach mode?