Andy & Ari On3 - Inside the NEW EA Sports College Football '27 Video Game | July 9th Release Date for Xbox, PS5

Episode Date: June 5, 2026

On Thursday afternoon, Andy & Ari were able to play the new EA Sports College Football '27 video game. Releasing on July 9th, Andy & Ari take you through the new wrinkles and tweaks to the latest edition of this iconic video game. What changes are YOU most excited for? Who is your team you're starting your dynasty with?   (0:00) Intro: EA Sports CFB '27: Early thoughts (4:54) Changes: Commentators (7:54) Ohio State-Texas recreation (10:05) LSU-Ole Miss (13:30) Conclusion: Thanks!   Our show is also presented by BetMGM!   If you haven’t signed up for BetMGM yet, use bonus code CFB and you will get up to a $1500 First Bet Offer on your first wager with BetMGM! Here’s how it works:   1. Download the BetMGM app and sign-up using bonus code CFB. 2. Deposit at least $10 and place your first wager on any game. 3. You will receive up to $1500 in bonus bets if your bet loses! Just make sure you use bonus code CFB when you sign up!   Make this college football season one for the history books. Make it legendary.   See BetMGM.com for Terms. 21+ only. This promotional offer is not available in DC, Mississippi, New York, Nevada, Ontario, or Puerto Rico. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET (Available in the US) . 877-8-HOPENY or text HOPENY (467369) (NY), 1-800-327-5050 (MA), 1-800-BETS-OFF (IA), 1-800-981-0023 (PR). First Bet Offer for new customers only (if applicable). Subject to eligibility requirements. Rewards are non-withdrawable bonus bets that expire in 7 days. In partnership with Kansas Crossing Casino and Hotel   Join On3 today! https://www.on3.com/join   Subscribe to On3!  ⬇️ youtube.com/on3sports/?sub_confirmati... Welcome to On3 | The best of college football and recruiting https://www.on3.com/   Listen to Andy & Ari On3 on podcast!   Spotify 🎧: https://open.spotify.com/show/5AhQ4d2m5TQu5Q2vkwtxjt?si=d9016221aa2a4427   Apple 🍎: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/andy-staples-on3/id1695325427   Follow Andy & Ari On3 on X! https://x.com/AndyAriOn3   Follow Andy Staples on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Andy_Staples   Follow Andy Staples on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andy_staples   Follow Ari Wasserman on Twitter: https://x.com/AriWasserman   Follow us on Twitter https://twitter.com/on3sports   Follow us on Instagram https://www.instagram.com/on3/   Like/Follow us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/On3Sports/   Hosts: Andy Staples, Ari Wasserman Producer: River Bailey   Interested in partnering with the show? Email [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

But the star today is the EA Sports College Football 27 video game. We got to play it for the first time. And, Ari, we played the mascot game. Masked game's back. That was one of my favorite functions of the older game. You don't, it's not something you're going to play every time, but it's fun. Yeah, well, the one big breaking news piece that we have for you guys is that you cannot tackle the Duke mascot or the James Madison mascot, Duke, by his cape. Which you should be able to.

should be able to strangle him with it. Yes. That's part of the game. But we did play it, Andy, and you have played it intermittently. I've played it. Certainly played it a heck of a lot more in 25 when it first came out. But this is 27. What were your initial thoughts of the game?

So the thing that jumps out at me the most is quarterback play in the pocket. The thing that always drove me crazy is that I would have a quarterback who I knew was a good runner who was a good athlete. And he's just sort of wobbling around and looking very robotic in the pocket. and you have to press, you have to press a button if you want to scramble, and then you can move, but then you can't throw. And that always bothered me. And now it feels like when you play as an athletic quarterback,

he can move. Like I was playing as Trinidad Shambliss when we were playing us, you all miss. And that, playing as Trinidad, you could move around in the pocket. He could escape and still throw. He could keep the play alive to throw, which we talk about with quarterbacks all the time. Like, in real life, that's what you need to be able to do. In the game, you kind of have. had to decide, I'm going to throw this or I'm going to run this. There wasn't a lot of

escapeability. Now it feels like there's some escapeability. Yeah. And as you're looking, if you're watching on YouTube, a perfect outpass with the James Madison Duke all the way to the house. Sorry about that, Andy. But the thing that I noticed about this. Yeah, you couldn't tackle Eric Singleton Jr. when I was playing as Florida. Let's, let's be honest with them. Okay. It is a game that if you're expecting massive year-over-year changes, that's not what you're getting. They're not going to do that because they know they know you like the game you've bought a lot of the copies of the game they want they know you want to see like you want to see lane kiffin at lSU you you want to see new guys in new places like and it's funny because there are so many new players in new places

we played as as ohio state at texas we set that game up that week two game and i was ohio state and you were texas and like when i got on defense and saw quay russaw coming off the edge for Ohio State. I was like, oh my God, he transferred from Alabama and Ohio State. That's right. And the mechanism in the game, too, where they put stars underneath the star players. Yes. There were a lot of them on the field at the same time. But what I wanted to say, Andy, is

for me, something that matters a lot to me is graphics. And as we've continued on into this new 21st century of amazing graphics, they got sharper, I thought. The uniforms were crisp. The player movements were more smooth. It felt to me more realistic, more smooth, as you were mentioning with the

quarterback play. I thought that it was a really well done sharpening of the actual visuals of it. Now, there's a lot of changes when it comes to the dynasty mode and how you recruit and all the things they do. We'll get into that as you get closer to the game because they didn't, they didn't let us get a chance to play with that as much today. So we'll get into that as we get closer. I think that in the menus and in the dynasty mode is where the majority of the changes are going to be. But for college football nerds like me and you, yes, people listening to the show, it's just cool. Like in the B-roll here, you see Lane Kiffin coming out of the tunnel at LSU. You see new graphics. Kurtzignetti's in the game.

Yeah. And it's just... Heardtie leading the Hoosier mascot team out. It was pretty spectacular. Yeah. And some of the pregame checks on defense are in different places. You got to readjust the whole. Yeah, I was driving Ari crazy. Ari's thinking he's going to lock me down. He's thinking, you know, I'm going to look at Andy's formation and I got him, I got him completely locked up. Well, the truth is so much of this game is about muscle memory.

Yeah. And what you remember from pre-refermation. games and stuff. Both you and I were using hurry up. Both you and I were trying to go fast. So if you don't have that set up, if you don't have your favorite set of play set up, you're going to be in trouble. Yeah. But a lot of college football people around here. We got Chad Ojo Cinco right here. Cam Newton is just over there. And every single time I see Cam Newton in person, I can't believe that's an actual person. But it is. Somebody had to tackle him. Yeah, and I don't know who or why they would want to ever do that. My career would be over. But we also got.

to, you know, hang out with Michael Vick for a little bit. We did. He's going to be on Monday's show. Yeah, one of the greatest video game players at all time and one of the coolest players I've ever seen play football. So that's Andy recording Michael Vick. I mean, sorry, Cam Newton at the buffet. And he likes Tater Tots. Who doesn't?

Let's be honest here. This is my heaven over here. Exactly. You love this place. Yeah. You love this place. Yeah. So a couple of things that are.

changing and we can start with one of the pregame screens and that would be when you pick your commentators so you're picking your style of game do you want your commentary to be your regular broadcasting Reese Davis jesse palmer david david paulick like last year we mentioned that perker up street not in the game this year so if you go big game you're going chris faller and jill clatt and holly row on the sidelines that's pretty awesome day and he will be in this game as what the podcast in the middle of the games in dynasty mode talking about the coach getting fired we are going to be the podcast in the game eventually right yeah that's what i mean that's why i hope is we have to be it has to happen since it's in the game but they don't have podcasts we're talking about

which coaches are going to be let go in the middle of the uh off season exactly or in week three in in the case of real life right now yeah so you know we have a long way to go andy but i think we can get there but the chris fowler jol clatt combination i got to say it's It sounded kind of good. Yeah. And it's weird because, like, in real life, we know that ESPN and Fox are kind of mortal enemies. And the idea of those guys actually working together seems pretty far-fetched because it's number one talent from both company. And I don't know that they would ever let either one go.

But it was pretty fun. And both of them are Colorado grads. Yeah. Yeah. But it also makes you feel like you're watching a game on TV, which is kind of what they want. you know, they want you to feel like you're in that moment in that environment where you're watching the game. Yeah. So it plays well. Holly Roe, by the way, in the game this year, which was awesome. So congratulations, Holly. We, and that also makes it feel like a bigger game because

they've set up the beats of the game when you get into it. Like you have a Holly Roe commentary coming right out of the tunnel right as the teams are taking the field, which is exactly what they do in real life, where they throw down to Holly, if it's Chris and Kurt, or if it's, if it's Gus and Joel, they throw down to Jenny. And it's pretty cool that they, again, this game is made by people who listen to this show. College football nerds.

Love college football. And they get the beats exactly. That's the sort of stuff they care about that you don't even know you care about until you're playing the game, you realize they've done it. Yeah, yeah. And it's just like it's seamless.

Yeah. It mirrors how it feels to watch a big time on television. It makes it feel natural while you're playing it. All right. Let's take a look at a simulated big game. Ari and I played where we sent Ohio State to Austin, which is going to happen in week two. Ohio State is going to play at Texas.

I was the Buckeyes. Ari was the Longhorns. And I got to say, this new look, Buckeyes D-Line got after Arch Manning's ass. And then we brought out Jeremiah Smith. All right, we are setting up week two in Austin. I'm just going, there's nothing to even. It's perfect.

Yeah, we're not editing uniforms. They're perfect. The Ohio State uniforms, correct. Obviously, broadcast team. Let's go. It's the games at night, right? Is the game at night? Gaines at night.

Four or length. All right, let's go ahead. Do you want to make it bad weather? Oh, no. Okay. It's Austin. Like, what are we doing? We're trying to keep this as real as humanly possible.

And, uh, I got to say, I'm the favorite here. Vivo looking real there. Bevo's looking feisty. I got to say, as somebody who played the game the last few years, like the graphics have gotten sharper and better. You know, I know that the criticism for EA sports

a lot of the times is that the games don't change a lot year over year. And that might be the case with some of the plays and stuff, but it's getting smoother and better and more refined. Yeah, the people look. Look at the helmets here. I mean, it's like... The detail on the players is a lot better, but even the detail on the people is better.

And they got Ohio State's brand new uniforms in there, Andy, which they got the piping on the sleeves now. I see this called the it's just what they used to wear in the playoff, but what they used to wear before the playoff and now we're back at it full time. Yeah, some teams I like to mess with the uniform. That matchup, I don't want to mess with the uniforms. Yeah, the heritage stripes. It was escaping me.

But yes, perfect uniforms. And of course, there was something super realistic in this game, Andy. Yeah. me making a terrible throw, but Jeremiah Smith bailing me out. All right, Ari, you want to take the folks through this play? Yeah, it's something that people haven't seen before. It's Jeremiah Smith doing something ridiculous in traffic. This is not my best throw.

Julian saying making an ill-advised throw with the defender in front of them. Jeremiah Smith just pops up ahead and... Mossing. Mossing somebody. Does what Jeremiah Smith does. So here we go, and, you know, it's early in the game. We're at home. I've got Arch. I've got Cam Coleman.

You haven't heard of him yet. By the way, Ohio State's defensive line from one series, I can tell you, is highly overpowered. Quay Russo, Alabama transfer, getting after Archmanning. Getting after him. Okay. Well. And of course, Ari, we could not have done this without setting up the game that every single human being on Earth wants to see. And that is when Lane Kiffin returns to Oxford, Mississippi in September.

I got to admit, the stadium pulse was rocking for Vaught Hemingway, which is not a big stadium. Paul Stadium. If we're being real. We did make one critical error. And we played the game during the day. Yeah, we did. But everything else, exactly the same. I don't know if there's like bottles being thrown in the video game.

That place is going to be an absolute war zone in real life. I thought they did a pretty good job of recreate it. We did not see any mustard bottles flying. Yeah. Oh, I got to go to white. I got to get a white jerseys. You got a year of white jerseys. Oh, no.

I'm going to make you play in purple jerseys just because you left me. Yeah. I think with Ole Miss is that there's a lot, a lot, a lot of uniform combinations that are very pretty. One of the most beautiful uniforms of all of college football. Which direction are we going here, Andy? You know which direction you're going. Powder blue. Powder blue helmet. Let's go. Yeah, I'm making, because LSU wants to wear white, I'm going to make you wear purple. Yeah. trying our best to recreate the most intriguing matchup of the 2026 season here?

I can't wait. I mean, we've gotten to see Sam Levitt a little bit in video game land. We learned a few things up. So we played Florida, Arizona. We did an alma mater matchup. They had Aaron Philo as QB1 for the Gators. Do they have intel there or what? I don't know if they have Intel.

I think they're making assumptions. Tremel Jones, Jr., you could pop him in there as a starter if you'd like, and that may very well happen depending on how the first couple games go. Where they are wrong on rosters, they do update after it comes out. Yep. So things, but you got to pick one. I mean, what are you going to do? You can't just.

You know, but he picked the Florida. I went Florida throwbacks. I like the Florida throwbacks. And it turns out that my Arizona Wildcats still aren't quite big, strong, or fast enough to play in an SEC. Well, not fast enough to tackle Eric Singleton Jr. That's for sure. That's another kind of new face, new place.

We mentioned some guys the other day that we're excited to see in their uniforms. that's Eric Singleton Jr. who played at Auburn last year, was at Georgia Tech before that, we probably should have mentioned him. Yeah. Because this is a Florida receiving court that Dallas Wilson's there. Bernal Brown, the third, is back. But I think Eric Singleton, Jr. is going to make them quite a bit better.

Yeah, and it's also one of those guys, too, where it's like I knew that Eric Singleton went to Florida, but when you're playing the game, one of the joys of it is like, oh, crap, Eric Singleton's out there. The funniest part of that particular play when we did it is he's lined up to the left off screen a little bit. I know he's there. If you're not paying attention as you're calling your defense,

you don't know he's there. And I just threw him something a little. I just dumped it off in the flat, and he's just gone. Yeah, if there's any way to try to learn where everybody is, it's about a one week, 40-hour session on this game, then you'll be fully caught up.

But, you know, there were a few times where Andy was sneaking in some transfers that I forgot around certain teams and making some plays there because he's sneaky. but yeah that's i mean that's the biggest most wonderful part of the game is that it's so close to real life that when you actually get to play it when it comes out you know weeks before the actual season starts you get to actually see people in those positions for the first time well we got to see it we're going to have to wait like everybody else until this thing comes out early july

and uh i got a feeling uh that july fourth weekend is going to be a pretty well booked for me yeah Well, we did strategically take the week before it off, so maybe they'll give us the game. Yeah, we don't take a lot of vacations. So, yeah, EA sports folks, if you want to toss that over in our inbox. Yeah, throw a code our way a couple days early. Just, you know, for your pals, Ari and Andy. We're not bad, guys. No, not bad.

But yeah, fun game. Can't wait to see the full version. Can't wait to start my career, my dynasty mode. What was my team going to be this year? Kent State, probably. I like, okay. No, no, you should pick a team. My thing with picking a dynasty always is visually.

Yes. I know we talked about us on Thursday show. Yeah, yeah. Visual stadiums. So I like having beautiful stadiums and a lot of these stadiums that are beautiful. I got it. I got it. I'm going to be playing on the teal.

Yeah. In Conway, South Carolina. Coastal Carolina. That's a pretty good one. I think I'm going to go like Colorado State. Yeah. Or somebody that's got mountains because you know I'm a sucker for mountains. They got to put the sunset in there, I think.

I it always comes down to the sunset with you. We will talk to you tomorrow.