Game Status Workflow

Every NCAA Football (NCAAFB) game travels through a lifecycle of statuses, and the game status field is the signal that tells your integration which feed to read and how often. Status appears in every schedule feed and every game feed, so you can branch on it wherever you already are.

A game's initial status and schedule information come from the Season Schedule, Current Season Schedule, or Current Week Schedule feeds. The Season Schedule below is shortened to one game entry, showing where status rides alongside the game's coverage level:

<season xmlns="http://feed.elasticstats.com/schema/football/schedule-v7.0.xsd" id="908fbc20-f5c7-11ee-a306-c311afc28263" year="2024" type="REG" name="REG">
<game id="a23db539-d639-4113-8fbb-7117ee8ab7a9" status="scheduled" scheduled="2024-08-24T19:30:00+00:00" entry_mode="LDE" coverage="extended_boxscore" sr_id="sr:match:50078615" game_type="regular" conference_game="false">
      <venue id="dcfa24e5-a53e-4cae-92e6-d31497c5610b" name="Memorial Stadium (Stephenville, TX)" city="Stephenville" state="TX" country="USA" zip="76401" address="N Harbin Drive" capacity="10000" surface="turf" roof_type="outdoor">
        <location lat="32.2151" lng="-98.2235"/>
      </venue>
      <home id="ed05b9d3-0086-49bb-9ea5-329ab0d0729b" name="Tarleton State Texans" alias="TSU" game_number="1"/>
      <away id="efc41557-a738-43fa-9519-8fd0734923f9" name="McNeese Cowboys" alias="MCN" game_number="1"/>
      <broadcast network="ESPN2" satellite="209"/>
      <time_zones venue="US/Central" home="US/Central" away="US/Central"/>
</game>
</season>

{
  "id": "908fbc20-f5c7-11ee-a306-c311afc28263",
  "year": 2024,
  "type": "REG",
  "name": "REG",
  "weeks": [
    {
        "id": "a23db539-d639-4113-8fbb-7117ee8ab7a9",
          "status": "scheduled",
          "scheduled": "2024-08-24T19:30:00+00:00",
          "entry_mode": "LDE",
          "coverage": "extended_boxscore",
          "sr_id": "sr:match:50078615",
          "game_type": "regular",
          "conference_game": false,
          "venue": {
            "id": "dcfa24e5-a53e-4cae-92e6-d31497c5610b",
            "name": "Memorial Stadium (Stephenville, TX)",
            "city": "Stephenville",
            "state": "TX",
            "country": "USA",
            "zip": "76401",
            "address": "N Harbin Drive",
            "capacity": 10000,
            "surface": "turf",
            "roof_type": "outdoor",
            "location": {
              "lat": "32.2151",
              "lng": "-98.2235"
            }
          },
          "home": {
            "id": "ed05b9d3-0086-49bb-9ea5-329ab0d0729b",
            "name": "Tarleton State Texans",
            "alias": "TSU",
            "game_number": 1
          },
          "away": {
            "id": "efc41557-a738-43fa-9519-8fd0734923f9",
            "name": "McNeese Cowboys",
            "alias": "MCN",
            "game_number": 1
          },
          "broadcast": {
            "network": "ESPN2",
            "satellite": "209"
          },
          "time_zones": {
            "venue": "US/Central",
            "home": "US/Central",
            "away": "US/Central"
          }
        }
      ]
}

Coverage

Coverage varies by game, and each schedule entry declares its level in the coverage field (the entry above reads extended_boxscore). The levels and what each provides:

NCAAFB Fundamentals covers the coverage model.

Game Status Definitions

Below are the valid game statuses you can expect to see in the NCAAFB API. Reference these definitions for precise detail on what each game state signifies.

ℹ️

Flex Scheduling

The flex-schedule status exists in the NCAAFB status set but is not used for college games.

How a Game Progresses

The cards below follow a game along each path it can take, with context around every status change. Most games run the standard path from scheduled to closed; the remaining cards cover the placeholder, reschedule, interruption, and cancellation paths that branch from it.

1. The standard path: scheduled to closed

A typical NCAAFB game moves from scheduled through created, inprogress, halftime, and complete before settling at closed.

2. Placeholder times: time-tbd

A time-tbd game carries a placeholder status until its date and time are fixed. Once the game reaches scheduled it follows the standard path in step 1.

3. Reschedules: postponed

A postponed game keeps its original entry, and the makeup game arrives as a new game with a new ID. Once the new game is created in scheduled status, it follows the standard path in step 1.

4. Interruptions: suspended

A game in progress can be suspended and resumed later under the same game ID. Once a suspended game moves back to inprogress it follows the standard path in step 1.

5. Called off: cancelled

A cancelled game remains in cancelled status, and no makeup game is played. Game b1f28be6-ab18-4e85-95af-9c53b1e1dbc4 is an example.

Game State Samples

Click the links below for sample data of Game feeds by game state.

• scheduled
• created
• inprogress
• halftime
• complete
• closed

Where Status Drives Behavior

• Scores in schedules: scores populate in the schedule feeds when a game reaches complete; before that, read live scores from the game feeds. closed marks the stats as validated.
• Stat validation: at complete the score is correct while statistics are verified against one or both of the competing teams' official gamebooks, which can take up to 150 minutes before the game moves to closed. closed means all stats are validated: player and team statistics, player participation, and game attendance and duration. Tackle detail can continue to be completed during the following week, and adjustments land after closed, so follow Monitoring Data Changes.
• Player game statuses: rosters, officials, and game data pre-load at created, when the Game Roster populates. Games move to created a day prior to kickoff: a Tuesday game moves on Monday, and a week that opens on Friday moves on Thursday evening.
• Reschedules: postponed produces a makeup game under a new ID, and the postponed and rescheduled game IDs are not linked within the API, so request the schedule feeds regularly to identify makeup games; suspended resumes under the same ID; cancelled is terminal with no makeup game.
• Kickoff timing: time-tbd games firm up into scheduled once a date and time are announced, and the status is frequent in NCAA Football because many game times are not decided when initially scheduled; keep re-pulling schedules to catch the change. inprogress is set once the coin toss completes, typically just before kickoff, and the game feeds can reach inprogress before the schedule feeds, whose status updates on a timer, so poll the game feeds for realtime updates.

Weekly Data Entry

This section provides important college football data update timings for schedules, statistics, rankings, and more.

Best Practices

• Branch on status, not on the presence of scores: a scheduled entry with no scores is normal, and scores arriving in the schedule feeds is a side effect of complete
• Only closed and cancelled are terminal; every other status can still change, and a game can step back from complete to inprogress while its post-game review is under way. Statistics can still adjust after closed, so keep Monitoring Data Changes in the loop
• During a game window, drive polling from the Tracking Live Games workflow, and wind down once the game is closed
• Request the schedule feeds regularly: makeup games arrive under new IDs, and time-tbd games resolve to scheduled once their times are announced
• Exercise every branch of your status logic against the Game State Samples and Simulations above before the season starts
• Per-status polling cadences come from Update Frequencies