College Football 26 Road to Glory Takes Players Back to High School

College Football 25 set the foundation for the return of the long-running series. EA Sports did an admirable job of giving players most of the broad strokes they wanted with the first effort, but there was plenty of room for improvement. That was most evident in the relatively barebones Road to Glory mode. Building your collegiate star in CFB 25 was relatively shallow, and EA knew it would have to expand on the mode. Thankfully, EA Sports College Football 26 appears to be taking a step in the right direction when it comes to RTG mode. The latest deep dive has revealed several important changes coming this year.

RELATED: EA Sports College Football 26 Reveals Toughest Places to Play

The most notable addition to Road to Glory in College Football 26 is the reintroduction of a more in-depth high school mode. This year, you’ll have to “play “build your tape,” which is EA’s way of saying you’ll need to perform in key moments to build interest with programs around the country. Not only will you have in-game moments to master, but RTG essentially gives you a player-focused version of recruiting from Dynasty mode.

Instead of sending out scholarships and wooing players as a coach, Road to Glory’s version of recruitment flips it on its head. Now, you’ll need to work with schools to ensure you earn that scholarship. You’ll have several different moments you can attempt each week, with some moments giving you a boost to specific schools. This lets you target schools you want to sign with, while still leaving a smidge of wiggle room depending on your in-game performance.

Getting a quality scholarship is more important than just which school you play for. If you earn a better offer, you’ll get boosts to XP, Skill Points, and even Coach Trust. Speaking of trust, you can now unlock several new abilities as you and your coach bond. The upgraded mechanic should make getting in good with your head coach even more worthwhile.

There are also several new scenarios, an expanded NIL system that gives you even more upgrades, and a new mechanic called Coach Happiness. This is a more volatile version of Coach Trust that changes more from week to week, giving you short-term bonuses (or penalties).

That’s just a sliver of everything Electronic Arts covered in the new developer blog. If you want to read through everything, including a few hints about the expanded integration between Road to Glory and Madden NFL 26 Superstar mode, make sure to head to the official site. The 51-page document is filled with details, giving you a complete picture of everything coming this year.

All of this sounds good, but it’s hard to know how fully-featured it’ll actually be until we have College Football 26 in our hands. Thankfully, we don’t have to wait too much longer to get that information. EA Sports College Football 26 is set to launch for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on July 10th. If you purchase the Deluxe Edition or MVP Bundle (which includes the deluxe version of Madden NFL 26), you can hop in three days early.