Waiting's the Worst (and Best) Part of Sports Game Season

I say this too often and then am proven to be a liar, but I really do plan to keep it short this week — you all deserve a break from my essay breakdowns. With that said, I’m going to hit on College Football 26 and Rematch in this newsletter because those are my most anticipated sports games this year, and they’re both going to be in the spotlight next week — albeit for different reasons.

But before jumping into that, I do want to lead in by saying that sports game season is obviously cyclical, and so a lot of the veterans of that yearly loop (presumably many of you reading this newsletter) are very used to the flow of it. But the thing about the loop is the anticipation does not always hit the same. Some years you’re almost dreading a game’s release even if you want to remain hopeful.

This means in those somewhat rare cases where you get very excited for a future release, waiting can take on a new level of pain. However, we should relish these moments not malign them. Like the green light at the end of the dock, longing is a powerful thing, and so long as we don’t pursue it to a Gatsby-level, then it can add to the hype in a fun way that’s not destructive. Some folks on OS are bumming because everyone (myself included) thought we’d get a Gridiron Notes this week on CFB’s gameplay. It could still happen today, but EA did not schedule a video to premiere on YouTube, so it seems unlikely as of now to be a Friday shadow drop.

Do you remember what your most anticipated sports game of all-time was, if so, what was it and what was the year? I give you the means to hit me up with comments, thoughts, musings, questions, or anything else on this topic and beyond. You’re free to explain why no one can ever top Bo Jackson in Tecmo Bowl, or talk about why Tin Cup is underrated as a sports movie — any and all are welcome. If I get enough responses, I’d love to feature them in future newsletters or in “mailbags” of our own.

Here is the e-mail: [email protected] (and bonus points if you also include your city, name (or alias), and some sort of subject to go along with your thoughts.

Regardless, whether it’s the yearly countdown on OS or whatever form of pre-release hype you buy into, the waiting is part of the experience — and some years that pre-release hype is more fun and engaging than the 11 months that follow when you are playing the game. It’s the life of a sports game fan, and if you’re going to live that life, you should try to enjoy all aspects of it to some degree.

Some of us are more patient than others though, so the fact that we didn’t get news this week sucks a little bit since we’re a month away from the game coming out and we want to be well informed before launch. But I still think you should bottle that feeling up and enjoy it because it’s not always there. We’re excited because many of us thought College Football 25 was a good to great game, and ‘26 could theoretically be even better. We won’t know how much better until it’s in our mitts, but enjoy the dream while you have it.

Roster Editing And Roster Share In College Football’s Future?

Speaking of college football, the big news from the world of college athletics this past week is that the NCAA settled a lawsuit with college athletes/schools for a cool $2.8 billion. This settlement allows schools to directly pay athletes (but the athletes still aren’t employees). It’s not going to solve every issue since this is more an introduction of new rules rather than the continuation of an “anything goes now” environment — and with rules comes rule breaking — but it at least provides some level of clarity after the last couple years of donors and others just paying college athletes whatever they wanted while everyone looked around and wondered if this was going to fly.

Matt Brown and his Extra Points newsletter are the go-to for everything college athletics, so I do recommend you subscribe and pay for his great work if you’re into that scene, but one thing that’s worth noting from his general analysis is that everything old is new again to some extent. This settlement doesn’t mean college athletes are now treated like “pro” athletes in terms of sponsorships, contracts, and so on. And beyond that, an interesting thing he said was about revenue sources for these schools — after all, they’re all going to need more money to compete with each other.

From a College Football 27 and beyond perspective, my mind goes to importing draft classes and sharing rosters as two things that twinkle in my eye after reading something like this. And, yes, I do mean ‘27 since I highly doubt these features would be in this year’s game based on everything I’ve heard so far.

Now that payments to college athletes have some new framework, I do think EA will feel less concerned about future lawsuits, and I also think schools needing to snag extra revenue in piecemeal ways is going to provide some usefulness to companies like EA. I continue to believe it’s not a technical issue but a lawsuit issue stopping EA from doing full roster editing, roster sharing, and importing draft classes to Madden. EA doesn’t want players who didn’t sign to be in the game thrown around everywhere with a roster share feature, and players being imported into a whole different game (Madden) when they only signed up to be in College Football is another tricky issue that EA’s lawyers don’t want to worry about.

But now it feels like it could be a much more obvious “win win” for everyone if EA can go directly to schools and/or groups of players to work out these deals rather than dealing with each individual athlete via a waiver. Now, how much “extra” is EA willing to pay to expand certain licensing deals to get somewhat niche features like roster share and draft class import into their games is a fair question, but I think daring to dream is worthwhile after this latest batch of news.

Rematch Launches Next Week

If you’ve missed me gushing about Rematch both in this newsletter and on OS proper, well, it’s okay, I forgive you. I won’t try to sell it too hard, but the “Rocket League meets actual soccer this time” is the elevator pitch, and it’s an accurate pitch. However, my pitch to you all is that this is an experience you have probably never had before in a sports game — and many of us are dying for that sort of thing. We complain about a lack of competition, lack of choice, and lack of new experiences, and it would be hypocritical to look past this one for that reason alone.

Competitive online games are a tough sell depending on which parts of the community you talk to because many of us are sim-heads who just want a great franchise mode, but even if that describes you, give this one a chance. Alternatively, if you’re a big Pro Clubs person, this is a no-brainer.

Rematch is something fresh. It’s a developer who previously released a very fun fighting game/beat ‘em up (Sifu) going a totally new direction and trying their hand at a soccer game.

The skill gap is extremely high, and yet the controls are relatively basic. Rematch’s aesthetics are not for everyone, but they fit the gameplay. it’s not a licensed soccer game, but it proves its worth on the pitch by feeling like nothing else out there. Making simple passes is hard when you first pick up a controller. The act of shooting or even dribbling comes with a real learning curve. And yet it’s fun to fail because it’s the sort of failure that makes me want to get better. I’m not fighting the controls themselves, rather I’m struggling to succeed with the tools at my disposal.

It’s obviously more fun with friends, but I’ve had a good time in the betas with friends and with randoms (at least for the most part). You’ll deal with some toxicity in random lobbies at times I’m sure, but you can always mute everyone and just play. Rematch is a sports game where I’m rarely blaming the animations or controls or anything like that. If I mess up, it’s because I messed up. If I succeed, it’s because I deserved it.

Early access for Rematch starts on June 16 if you pre-order the $40 or $50 version, but it will also be on Game Pass starting June 19, and it will sell for $30 if you just want to wait until June 19 to play. Let’s reward developers trying to enter this space with a great idea and game because heaven knows we need more developers trying their hand at sports games again. It’s a perfect video game genre, we just need more companies and developers to realize that again.

Until next time y’all. And, as always, thanks for reading.

-Chase