How Player Progression is Broken in College Football 26 Dynasty Mode

If you’re planning to buy College Football 26 coins and jump into Dynasty mode, be aware that player progression in this year’s game is seriously broken. The player development system, which is supposed to help your athletes grow as the season goes on, is currently malfunctioning during the regular season, particularly in manual progression settings. This issue has been widely reported and tested by the community, with detailed data showing just how drastic the progression deficiencies are.

A popular content creator and data analyst recently revealed that when manually progressing players with a penalty set to around 25%, expected skill point gains throughout the season almost completely disappear. In theory, with a 25% progression penalty, a player gaining 8 XP tokens should lose only 2 tokens, netting 6 XP. However, practical testing has shown that players gain next to nothing during the season under manual progression—even with top coaching staff and maxed-out development packages.

Notably, this issue worsens if you try to rely on manual progression during the regular season. Players gain almost no skill improvements, which many users have observed firsthand. Only occasional random single-point gains occur, making it feel like there is no meaningful progression in match simulation. On the other hand, when auto progression is enabled during the season, players benefit from substantially higher skill point earnings, sometimes gaining multiple times more than manual progression allows — despite the lack of player choice in how points are allocated.

The problem seems to exist due to a bug in how reductions or penalties are applied during the active season, with some evidence indicating exponential or complete reduction of skill points under manual progression settings. However, this issue does not affect offseason progression, which continues to work correctly according to the data.

For Dynasty mode players who want to optimize player growth, the best current advice is to enable auto progression during the regular season and switch to manual only in the offseason or after the final game to ensure maximum growth. Manually progressing players with any reduction percentage during the season is likely to drastically stunt player development and put you at a competitive disadvantage—especially versus league members who use auto progression.

Also keep in mind that actual gameplay (playing games yourself, not just simming) tends to earn more skill points for your players than simming alone. So, to truly maximize player development alongside smart progression settings, active gameplay is very beneficial.

Ultimately, this broken system represents a significant downgrade from previous editions, frustrating many dedicated CFB 26 Dynasty players trying to manage their rosters strategically. If you plan to buy College Football 26 coins to support your team’s growth, consider also adjusting your progression mode accordingly to avoid this unexpected setback.