NCAAFB API Basics
Learn important structural concepts of the NCAA Football API
Intro
Sportradar's NCAA Football (NCAAFB) data is delivered as a RESTful B2B (Business-to-Business) API. HTTP requests are made using the API authentication access established in your account.
Data can be returned in either JSON or XML format.
Technical Requirements
To accept data from our API feeds, ensure that your application:
- Supports TLS 1.2 or above
- Can follow an HTTP redirect (used in Push and the Images API)
API Style
The NCAA Football API is a Sportradar League-Based API. This means it was designed specifically for the sport of football, and an aim to provide our media customers with in-depth, intuitive, and speedy NCAAFB statistics.
We provide three additional football data APIs: NFL, UFL, and Global American Football.
The NFL and UFL APIs have the exact same structure as college football, with the only differences being those necessitated by the league structures themselves. For example, Standings data in the NFL behaves differently than Rankings in NCAA Football. And overtime rules in the UFL require slightly different data points at a game level from the NCAA Football API.
The Global American Football API is a separate structure, adhering to our General Sport API format. Integration with the "Global" API will not be covered in this guide.
Data Collection
All NCAA Football data is collected by Sportrdar's expert in-house operators.
Versioning
The current and only version of the NCAA Football API is v7. We strongly recommend using the latest version of all of our APIs, as these will be the most stable and robust offerings. However, we generally support up to 3 versions (the current and 2 past versions) of our data APIs, per our Versioning Policy.
To access NCAA Football v7, simply use v7 in each request to the API in the version parameter.
Data Flow and Retrieval
The NCAA Football API organizes its data into logical endpoints, or feeds. For example, to access a team schedule you will want to retrieve a "schedule" feed like Season Schedule; to access a game, you will want to retrieve a "game" feed like Play-by-Play or Game Statistics.
The API is separated into 20 distinct feeds, each with a focused purpose to allow for efficient data retrieval. Depending on your specific need, different feeds and pull frequencies will be needed. Use our NCAAFB Endpoints section for feed documentation and an interactive sandbox.
Most feeds will require the inclusion of a unique Id or parameter. Parameters can range from: season type, season year, week number, game Id, player Id, or team Id. To retrieve these unique Ids you may have to iterate through feeds with larger data sets. See our ID Handling section for more info on Sportradar Ids.
Here is a retrieval path for a player profile.
Step 1
 or [Teams](https://developer.sportradar.com/football/reference/nfl-teams) endpoint.
See the [Endpoint Descriptions](https://developer.sportradar.com/football/reference/nfl-overview#endpoint-descriptions) section for data to be found in each feed.
Locate the unique Id of the team who employs this player.](https://files.readme.io/9bc242e-Standard_Game_Flow_15.png)
First, make a request to the League Hierarchy or Teams endpoint.
See the Endpoint Descriptions section for data to be found in each feed.
Locate the unique Id of the player's team.
Step 2
 feed using your
found team Id and locate the unique player Id.](https://files.readme.io/bb9375c-image.png)
Second, make a request to the Team Roster feed using your
found team Id and locate the unique player Id.
Step 3
Third, make a request to the Player Profile feed to find
player biographical info, draft info, and seasonal stats.
All NCAAFB API feeds will follow this pulling logic. Visit our Integration Scenarios section for specific retrieval scenarios.
You can also reference our NCAAFB API Map to get a sense of how the entire API is interconnected.
RESTful & Push
Most of our NCAAFB endpoints are RESTful, but we also include complementary Push feeds available for Realtime customers.
With RESTful feeds, a request must be made whenever a data update is needed. For our Push feeds, one request will open up a streaming connection. Data is then delivered in a continuous stream indefinitely.
Push feeds correlate to the RESTful endpoints, but are not necessarily 1:1 in parity. For example, the Push Events feed follows the same format, and includes nearly all of the same data, as the Play-by-Play RESTful endpoint. And Push Statistics correlates to Game Statistics.
For increased data speed, and less API requests, many customers use Push. Though it is important to note that Push feeds are not meant to replace the RESTful data, but to enhance it. RESTful feeds should always be used as the backbone of the NCAAFB API.
See our Push Feeds section for more info.
Change Log
The NCAAFB API includes a Daily Change Log feed, which is used to catch updates for teams, players, game stats, schedules, and standings.
A request is made for a specific date, which then returns a list of unique Ids and timestamps of updates on that day. You can then use these Ids to retrieve stat updates from other endpoints. This allows for quick and efficient data retrieval, and will be a common concept across all integration scenarios.
See our advanced Change Log guide for detail on how to efficiently leverage this feed.
Pagination
The NCAAFB API does not currently make use of pagination for any endpoint. Each return will provide all data available.
Additional Integration Options
Postman Workspace
Our entire Media APIs are available on Postman. Click the link above to be taken directly to our NCAAFB API v7 collection.
Feel free to follow and/or fork this collection to receive updates.
Schema Download
Open the zip file below to access our entire NCAA API v7 XSD schema.
More Questions?
Check our NCAAFB API FAQ or reach out to our support team at [email protected]
Updated about 2 months ago