Ultimate Team in CFB 26 SO BAD for No-Money-Spent Players — and Not in a Fun Way

I grinded hard in CFB 25 as a no-money-spent player and actually had a solid experience. But CFB 26 feels like a huge slap in the face.

To start, these ultimate team challenges are deliberately annoying, sweat-heavy, and borderline rigged — designed to frustrate you until you finally cave and spend money. It’s not about skill or learning mechanics. It’s about narrow score margins, random CPU cheese, and wasting your time just to get mid-tier cards.

The pay-to-win gap this year? It’s wild. You’re telling me I need to upgrade to a premium pass just so I can compete? I get it, you spend 60 bucks on a game, why not spend a little more to be able to have more fun. But we’re turning into Call of Duty battle pass level of pay to play.

You’re getting matched online against people who dropped $100+ on launch day, and their teams are full of 85+ players . There’s no realistic path for a no-money-spent player to catch up, unless you put in full-time job hours — and even then, you’re still behind unless you’re gaming every system perfectly.

Packs are still trash. XP is inconsistent. Rewards aren’t worth the grind. The game menu is the EXACT SAME as last year, they spent more time on the atmosphere of fans rather than gameplay. entire mode feels like a carbon copy of last year but somehow less rewarding, slower, and more intricate. 

I know im whining here. I feel insane but part of me thinks they already have a team drafting up cfb 27 and they just put this out for money to build for that.

I see it as a challenge. To develop a scheme and use cheap players to beat these idiots who give EA their cash.

Yeah I caved this year and spent a large sum at launch for a lift off. But don’t plan on spending any more money.

EA knows they can put out an absolutely dog shit ultimate team and the addicts will still buy packs. Just look at last years…

Original post moderated

Well actually this year I bought it with vouchers I was given :)

I agree

I mean, it's literally day 2 of the game being out officially. There is a definitive "golden age" period that each UT game reaches, where prices are affordable, the gameplay feels balanced, and user outlook is generally positive. Last game it was around season 3. I would expect a similar thing to happen this year, just gotta be patient...

Or, just not play online really. That's what I do until I KNOW I have a team that can compete with the spenders

Real good post GameAce92...Couldn't agree more, patience & do your best to grind through the games early stages...Hoping it gets better for you &/or everyone else who feels similar...Try to enjoy the process, it's just a game...

boccerman said:

I grinded hard in CFB 25 as a no-money-spent player and actually had a solid experience. But CFB 26 feels like a huge slap in the face.

To start, these ultimate team challenges are deliberately annoying, sweat-heavy, and borderline rigged — designed to frustrate you until you finally cave and spend money. It’s not about skill or learning mechanics. It’s about narrow score margins, random CPU cheese, and wasting your time just to get mid-tier cards.

The pay-to-win gap this year? It’s wild. You’re telling me I need to upgrade to a premium pass just so I can compete? I get it, you spend 60 bucks on a game, why not spend a little more to be able to have more fun. But we’re turning into Call of Duty battle pass level of pay to play.

You’re getting matched online against people who dropped $100+ on launch day, and their teams are full of 85+ players . There’s no realistic path for a no-money-spent player to catch up, unless you put in full-time job hours — and even then, you’re still behind unless you’re gaming every system perfectly.

Packs are still trash. XP is inconsistent. Rewards aren’t worth the grind. The game menu is the EXACT SAME as last year, they spent more time on the atmosphere of fans rather than gameplay. entire mode feels like a carbon copy of last year but somehow less rewarding, slower, and more intricate. 

I know im whining here. I feel insane but part of me thinks they already have a team drafting up cfb 27 and they just put this out for money to build for that.

This is the best it will get, each year EA will find a way to make you take out your credit cards. This year their strategy is to make the solo challenges harder so you have to build your team via spending real money.

GameAce92 said:

I mean, it's literally day 2 of the game being out officially. There is a definitive "golden age" period that each UT game reaches, where prices are affordable, the gameplay feels balanced, and user outlook is generally positive. Last game it was around season 3. I would expect a similar thing to happen this year, just gotta be patient...

Or, just not play online really. That's what I do until I KNOW I have a team that can compete with the spenders

This guy has Stockholm syndrome and he’s addicted to ultimate team. He grinds and spend money each year to get a “99 overall team” and redo the process each July/August. Don’t listen to him this is why EA will never provide a good game.

trevor697069 said:

Yeah I caved this year and spent a large sum at launch for a lift off. But don’t plan on spending any more money.

EA knows they can put out an absolutely dog shit ultimate team and the addicts will still buy packs. Just look at last years…

Addicts are to blame on why EA does what it does to the consumers. The game is unplayable they know it but they still released it. People who bought the deluxe version got scammed like last year and the year before and so on. I am surprised how EA gets away with these kinds of things. If this was McDonald it would have been stopped along time ago.

hulksmashr2 said:

This guy has Stockholm syndrome and he’s addicted to ultimate team. He grinds and spend money each year to get a “99 overall team” and redo the process each July/August. Don’t listen to him this is why EA will never provide a good game.

Definitely not lol. You dont know me bud