There are only a few weeks left beforeEA Sports College Football 26hits the field, bringing fans back for the second year. Therelease ofEA Sports College Football 25was massive, and developers at EA Tiburon are looking to continue its success by creating authentic college experiences coupled with fantastic football gameplay. Everything seems to be heading in the right direction, as anticipation only gets higher with every passing day.
Game Rant recently visited EA Tiburon in Orlando, Florida, speaking with creative director Scott O’Gallagher aboutEA Sports College Football 26. At the heart of our conversation was a love for college football and the student-athlete experience that’s only possible on college grounds. From authenticity to community, our discussion offered a little insight into the world ofCFB 26.The following transcript has been edited for clarity and brevity.
The Student Athlete Experience in College Football 26
Q: To kick things off, can you talk about how you define the college/student athlete experience in the game?
A:Our first goal, when we did this forthe foundational year with College Football 25, was to separate the meaning of a student athlete and an athlete in the NFL. These guys are still 17. Ryan Williams was a 17-year-old freshman last year, but you saw what he did. It’s not just the environment, but how he plays play-to-play, all those things matter. They’re not professionals, so even though they’re getting paid now, there are peaks and valleys I can speak to when I was a collegiate athlete. We really wanted to bring that in, so systems like confidence, composure, our ability system, but also homefield advantage and really bring those traditions in. That was the main way we depicted that difference on the field.
Q: There’s also a new lean body type, so can you tell me a little bit about how body types determine gameplay in defining that student athlete experience, if at all?
A: Hopefully, it comes into play, more or less, with the physics side of it because ourwear and tear system is a physics-based system. That is solely based on being an authentic balancing system. When you and I grew up playing these games, you’d see that quarterback just keep running, and running, and running, right? Getting this right was nerve-wracking. Jalen Milroe was elite and elusive, but you saw a lot of his impacts get negated when people tried to abuse him. You have to look at Riley Leonard and things of that nature, right? In the national championship, he just wore down after that first drive because he ran it so many times.
That’s, more or less, where those body types come in—it’s speed, weight, momentum. That’s about it.
Q: There’s this big push for that authentic experience, and when you’re looking at Alabama, you know it’s Alabama. But for schools like Jacksonville State University, how did you approach understanding the traditions from lesser-known or smaller schools?
A: Believe it or not, the goal is to treat them all the same. That’s why I coined the phrase, corny or not, thatevery team is someone’s favorite team. We just built around that because we couldn’t get away with not hitting those levels of authenticity, right? Like on YouTube. Now, a guy like yourself makes those videos, puts those out there, and knows whether that’s authentic or not. More or less, the first thing we do is reach out to the school and get hold of a coordinator, a coach, or representatives.
Last summer, I was down at Florida State. They invited us down and gave us the best tour that I’ve ever had, top to bottom. ‘These are the cleats that we wear. This is what the locker room looks like. This is our playbook.’ This is the stuff we do to get everything as close as we can into the game, so we take that approach with basically every school. Especially in that first year, that was a lot to build, so then you have to prioritize and go, ‘Okay, well, maybe this school can get three-fourths of what they can due to what we think will be the most played,’ which is a delicate balance, right? Because somebody at Kennesaw State thinks they’re just as important as Ohio State. I get it, and I respect the hell out of it, right?
Authenticity and Community in EA Sports College Football 26
Q: There was also a lot of talk about listening to the community. Could you talk a bit about that process and incorporating those things into the game?
A:That’s a great question. I come from the community. I got into this building after I got done playing basketball overseas, and coming from the community, there were a lot of things that I always wanted to be addressed that didn’t get addressed. I really hold the community in high regard, whether you’rea Dynasty guy or whatever. There’s a lot of validity at the end of the day, and we need to replicate what you see on Saturday and on Sundays, right? At the end of the day, I’m working on College and Madden, and it’s just football. That’s what it is, and that should be open because of this. What’s easy for a collegiate or a pro athlete should be easy for the user. That’s the whole gaming philosophy we passed on to the team. That is about seeing crowds too, so we removed the meme guy who’s in all the crowds.
Q: Can you talk about the importance of recreating that authenticity and presentation, and what it means when you’re playing a game? What does presentation add to gameplay?
A:Presentation is gameplay, and gameplay is presentation. That is probably the best line I could give you there; they both need each other. For example, the other day, I was playing USC at Notre Dama. It’s always cool to see Touchdown Jesus and them hitting the board. When USC comes out, now they boo, and it’s just a whole other lively feeling.
We’ve really leaned into that across the board withevery team and home-field advantage. And if something is hard, that’s by design. It’s hard in real life, and that’s what it is. We could make it easier, and we’d see that same complaint on the X website. Virginia Tech playing at Tulsa, for example, you’d get all of that. We really wanted to distinguish the venues and presentation, and you can go into a Dynasty, take Tulsa, and get them up there. That’s the beauty of it being a digital gridiron.
Q: There’s a set of reveals coming over the next few weeks, but what’s something you’re especially looking forward to, personally, in terms of the community finally seeing?
A:I would say there’s a lot under the hood. I think what we did with field vision, separating quarterback heights, and just hitting inaccuracies and stuff when you’re too close and there are linemen ahead of you, I’m excited for little details like that. What we did with how they turn their head to play the ball, too.
Stunts and twists is the big home run, right? All of us gamers have been asking for it. I asked for it when I was in the community years and years ago, and it’s been one of those things that just kept growing and growing. That’s where Clint Oldenburg and I got in and said this was a non-negotiable. We are getting this in, and he was behind it as a former NFL offensive lineman. It’s the authenticity. you’re able to stay in cover two and now play a bunch of different games up front, and it just makes our game look more authentic. It’s got a different feel in the pocket, and we needed that.
Like, when we went to the University of Florida this past summer and met their entire staff, I don’t want to be in their rooms saying we don’t have something, right? I want this to be a love letter to college football, and I would say from a presentation and gameplay perspective, we’re getting there. You know, that’s it. We have to make it as deep as the hardcore fans want it, and I mean hardcore football fan—any Johnny picking the game up and just wanting to have fun with his buddies on a Saturday night.
