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College Football Data API

College Football Data API

Upopen-databy Collegefootballdata

College Football Data API provides complete NCAA college football data — games, stats, teams, players, recruiting rankings, betting odds. Fully free.

Visit site ↗Health checked 9h ago
Use it when

Free and complete — best open option for CFB data

Watch for

Free tier has rate limits (200 per 30 seconds)

First check

Sign up at collegefootballdata.com for an API key (anonymous works but limited). GET /games?year=2024&season=regular -H "Authorization: Bearer ..."

Auth
—
CORS
No
HTTPS
Yes
Signup
?
Latency
538 ms
Protocol
REST
Pricing
—

Uptime · 30-day window

Probes: 1Uptime: 100%Avg latency: 538ms
01

About this API

CFB Data API is a gem in NCAA college football data — free, complete, well-maintained. Coverage: per-game box scores, play-by-play, advanced stats (EPA, PPA modern analytics metrics), player profiles, team head-to-head history, recruiting rankings (annual high-school player 247Sports composite rankings), betting odds history. An exception in the typically paid sports-data API market (creator Bud Davis maintains in open-source spirit). Python: cfbd package wrapper. Ecosystem: many CFB analysis blogs and Twitter accounts use this for content, Vegas bookmakers use it for model calibration, fantasy players use it for draft prep.

02

What you can build

  • 1Fantasy CFB player analysis
  • 2Sports media / blog stats support
  • 3Season prediction ML
  • 4Recruiting database
03

Strengths & limitations

Strengths

  • Free and complete — best open option for CFB data
  • Recruiting data is a highlight (247Sports composite rankings included)
  • Deep historical data

Limitations

  • Free tier has rate limits (200 per 30 seconds)
  • Mainly post-game data — real-time weaker than paid APIs
04

Example request

Generic template — replace <endpoint> with the real path from the docs.
curl https://collegefootballdata.com/<endpoint>
05

Getting started

Sign up at collegefootballdata.com for an API key (anonymous works but limited). GET /games?year=2024&season=regular -H "Authorization: Bearer ..."

06

FAQ

What is EPA?+

Expected Points Added — the core modern analytics metric in CFB/NFL, quantifying each play's contribution to expected scoring.

Why is it free?+

Founder is a Vandy alum passionate about CFB, treats it as a passion project. Voluntary donations via Patreon.

07

Technical details

CORS: NoHTTPS: YesSignup: ?Open source: No
Auth type
unknown
Pricing
unknown
Protocols
REST
SDKs
python, javascript, go
Response time
538 ms
Last health check
5/12/2026, 7:37:14 AM
08

Tags

cfbcollege-footballncaasports