Throughout my time playing Madden and/or EA CFB (formerly EA NCAA), I’ve used either the default difficulty settings (gross, do not recommend) or custom sliders recommended online in places like Reddit or the Operation Sports Forums, which have some great custom slider options created by users. It’s only been recently that I’ve dabbled in making my own. I’ve mostly dabbled in EA CFB 26, but I understand that Madden 26 has basically the same difficulty sliders and settings.
My main goal when creating sliders is to achieve as much realism and fair competition as possible. I don’t want to be able to drive down the field and score a touchdown on every drive unless my offense is incredible and/or the defense I’m up against sucks.
I want the overall ratings of each team to matter more, and I don’t want to feel as though the game is giving me anything for free, but I also don’t want it to feel as though the game has put up a brick wall and is denying me any meaningful momentum or production. I want to feel challenged, but I also want it to be realistic, so if I put together an elite dynasty in Madden with a 90+ team overall,
I should be able to consistently beat the Jets with little effort. It’s that realism vs. fun dynamic that we often talk about when it comes to sports games like this.
I think creating good sliders is a lot like anything else you do in life; the more effort and care you put into it, the better results you will find. As I said earlier, there are a lot of good custom options online, but it’s not personalized to your strengths and weaknesses, so it can lead to a frustrating gameplay experience.
Without personalized input from the player, the default sliders will make some aspects of the game much too difficult, while others will be impossibly easy. Let’s discuss how to create the perfect custom sliders for you. Remember, it doesn’t matter what works for other people; if it works for you, then it’s perfect.
Why Making Custom Sliders Is The Right Move
I don’t presume to know your football gaming acumen or your stick skills, but it’s generally a safe bet to assume that you have strengths and weaknesses just like all of us. You may be great at reading coverages and finding open targets, but you struggle to find open holes for your runners.
You may throw a bunch of picks or have a disappointing defensive game, but you might make up for it with offensive talent. Whatever kind of football gamer you are, it’s unlikely that you have the same skill level at all phases of the game.
Just like an NFL player in Madden, you have good attributes and bad attributes, and your proficiency in those attributes may vary wildly. That’s why you need to customize your sliders, because you’re not some generic test dummy at EA, you are a unique player who needs unique sliders to ensure that blend of competitiveness and fun that we strive for so often in games. Custom sliders are essentially a must for any football gaming fan who wants a realistic experience.
Starting Your Custom Journey
The first thing you’ll want to do is find the default difficulty that most closely resembles your true skill level. For most veteran players, this will be All-Madden in Madden and Heisman in EA’s College Football. Madden also has Rookie, Pro, and All-Pro, while CFB has Freshman, Varsity, and All-American as its three easiest difficulties.
After you find your difficulty, you’ll want to play a couple of games, either in franchise mode or just quick play.
In these practice games, you’ll want to make a mental (or physical) note of what seems too easy and what seems too tough in the game. Specifically, you’ll want to focus on these categories. I’ll add some guidelines as rough rules to follow, but they aren’t hardline rules, and oftentimes individual player attributes may affect the game more than the sliders, so just take these guidelines with a pinch of salt.
Player Skill
- QB accuracy – it’s not realistic for your QB to be hitting above 80% or below a 50% completion percentage; you should adjust this accordingly or to whatever you feel comfortable with.
- Pass blocking – a clean pocket on every play is not realistic, nor is giving up 5 sacks a game every game.
- WR catching – a few dropped catches every now and again is normal.
- Run blocking – if you’re averaging under two yards or over seven yards a carry with any typical starting running back, it’s probably time to adjust.
- Fumbles – moving this slider up will limit fumbles for your offense, but it usually doesn’t affect my game all that much.
- Pass defense reaction time – the 50% to 80% QB accuracy rule should be applied to opposing QBs when it comes to this slider
- Interceptions – lowering this slider will make it harder for CPU defenses to intercept the ball from you. This is the only slider that I recommend every player lower by at least 15 points, because both Madden and CFB love to pick the ball off of you
- Pass coverage – this one is similar to the pass defense reaction one
- Tackling – if your opponent averages under two yards or over seven a carry with any typical starting running back, it’s probably time to adjust.
CPU Skill
- QB accuracy – 50% to 80% completion percentage for opposing QBs
- Pass blocking – a clean pocket on every play is not realistic, nor is racking up 5 sacks a game every game unless you’re Georgia.
- WR catching – keep the opponents’ drops to a reasonable amount.
- Run blocking – if your opponent averages under two yards or over seven a carry with any typical starting running back, it’s probably time to adjust.
- Fumbles – adjust as you see fit.
- Pass defense reaction time – this one doesn’t have clean stat limits, it’s more of a vibes thing, does it feel as though the defense is suffocating your passing attack, and defensive players are going to where the ball is thrown as soon as you throw it? If so, you may want to lower this slider; if you’re carving up defenses more than you should, you should raise it.
- Interceptions – lowering this slider will make it harder for CPU defenses to intercept the ball from you. This is the only slider that I recommend every player lower by at least 15 points, because both Madden and CFB love to pick the ball off of you
- Pass coverage – adjust alongside pass defense reaction time.
- Tackling – if you’re averaging under two yards or over seven yards a carry with any typical starting running back and breaking a ton of tackles, it’s probably time to adjust.
There’s also special team sliders, but those are pretty self-explanatory, and I kinda just want to focus on the main offense/defense sliders.
ABT: Always Be Tweaking
A big thing that I found out when I started using custom sliders is how often I feel like I need to change them, and how changing the difficulties can make the game better — playing an FCS opponent this week?
Better crank down the difficulties and really run up the score, playing Georgia? Time to crank the CPU defensive sliders up! Even though the game already builds these things in through player attribute ratings and team overalls, I often find that this aspect of the game doesn’t fully correlate with how the games play out, and sliders can fix that.
Beyond just matchup adjustments, I also constantly adjust the sliders to match my skill level. I feel like I’m good at one thing one day and then the next it changes, or sometimes I’ll go weeks without playing, and I’ll be rusty and need to adjust for my first few games back.
The Final Product
With months of tweaking my difficulty sliders and matching it up to my level of skill and competition, I have a couple different settings (one based on Heisman and one based on All-American) that I use depending on the level of competition I face from my opponents that week (and whether I’m home or away), but I won’t be sharing them.
This article isn’t about me or my video game skills; this is about making custom sliders that fit you. I don’t think there is any one “perfect” slider setup out there that would work for everyone. Of course, there are universal problems with the game, such as interception rate, that could use a universal slider adjustment, but for the most part, I think what is perfect is what works for you.
