Tracking Playoffs
The NCAAFB postseason has two brackets. The College Football Playoff (CFP) is a 12-team, single-elimination tournament that decides the national champion of the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS); the FCS Playoffs are a 24-team, single-elimination tournament that crowns the champion of the Football Championship Subdivision (FCS). Both end in a championship game that decides the top team of its subdivision. The API addresses both under the REG season, the one season type NCAAFB uses, and describes them through three tournament feeds: the Tournament List lists the tournaments scheduled for a season, the Tournament Summary carries a tournament's location, status, start and end dates, and participants, and the Tournament Schedule provides the date, time, location, and other event details for every matchup in the tournament.
This scenario is commonly used to:
- Render a CFP or FCS bracket with seeds
- Track playoff matchups from TBD placeholders through to results
- Resolve who advances into each round and the championship
New Tournament Feeds!Note: These tournament feeds are newly added to the NCAAFB API, so tournament data may not be available for seasons prior to the 2024 release of these enhancements.
Relevant Feeds
| Feed | Scope | Use |
|---|---|---|
| Seasons | none | Season catalog: confirm the season year before any tournament call |
| Tournament List | {season_year}/REG | Discover the CFP and FCS tournaments and their IDs |
| Tournament Summary | tournament GUID | Participants and seeds |
| Tournament Schedule | tournament GUID | Rounds, bowl games, TBD slots, and matchup wiring |
High-Level Workflow
Integration Steps
1. Confirm the season
Every tournament feed hangs off a season, so start from the Seasons catalog.
To avoid confusion and ensure you're accessing available data, refer to our Seasons feed. This resource lists all the seasons for which we have data.
For example: To ensure data availability for future seasons, such as a schedule in advance of when a season begins, first check the Seasons feed to verify that data for that specific season is already provided.
Starting with this feed can prevent unnecessary errors and streamline your data retrieval process.
GET https://api.sportradar.com/ncaafb/trial/v7/en/league/seasons.json
x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEYNCAAFB runs one season type for the whole year, so the postseason is addressed with REG: the Tournament List takes {season_year}/REG, and the Summary and Schedule feeds take the tournament GUID it returns.
2. Discover the tournaments
The Tournament List for a season names each tournament with its location, status, and start and end dates, and provides the tournament GUID the other two feeds take. Each playoff tournament entry is available shortly after the regular season schedule is released. For 2025 it lists the FCS Playoffs (Nashville) and the College Football Playoff (Miami), both still scheduled:
GET https://api.sportradar.com/ncaafb/trial/v7/en/tournaments/2025/REG/schedule.json
x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY{
"league": {
"id": "26c1246a-2fc3-4b7e-8999-1685d3ab4676",
"name": "NCAA Football",
"alias": "NCAAFB"
},
"season": {
"id": "754e4990-efc7-11ef-bb2a-5d2d22b9215e",
"year": 2025,
"type": "REG"
},
"tournaments": [
{
"id": "39a7ae3c-6097-42d2-913b-4a06f109e78e",
"name": "FCS Playoffs",
"location": "Nashville, TN, USA",
"status": "scheduled",
"start_date": "2025-11-29",
"end_date": "2026-01-05"
},
{
"id": "b760eaa9-3e31-499e-a655-2ed5bb05d9f7",
"name": "College Football Playoff",
"location": "Miami, FL, USA",
"status": "scheduled",
"start_date": "2025-12-19",
"end_date": "2026-01-19"
}
]
}A tournament's status reads scheduled before it starts, inprogress while it runs, and closed once the championship is final.
3. Read seeds from the Tournament Summary
The Tournament Summary repeats the tournament's name, location, status, and dates, then organizes the participating teams into brackets. Each participant carries an id, name, market, and franchise_id, which address the team feeds for further details or statistics, plus its seed; the bracket's own id and name let you categorize matchups and lay them out visually. Participants are not listed in seed order, so sort on seed when rendering. Along with tracking live games in each matchup, poll this feed for the latest status of the whole tournament. The 2024 College Football Playoff's 12-team field, Oregon seeded first and Clemson twelfth:
GET https://api.sportradar.com/ncaafb/trial/v7/en/tournaments/77b49a1b-e3a0-4833-9ab0-799367dd97b1/summary.json
x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY{
"id": "77b49a1b-e3a0-4833-9ab0-799367dd97b1",
"name": "College Football Playoff",
"location": "Atlanta, GA, USA",
"status": "closed",
"start_date": "2024-12-20",
"end_date": "2025-01-20",
"league": {
"id": "26c1246a-2fc3-4b7e-8999-1685d3ab4676",
"name": "NCAA Football",
"alias": "NCAAFB"
},
"season": {
"id": "908fbc20-f5c7-11ee-a306-c311afc28263",
"year": 2024,
"type": "REG"
},
"brackets": [
{
"id": "67ed9991-b34b-4f6c-8313-e7e202c36291",
"name": "College Football Playoff",
"location": "Atlanta, GA, USA",
"participants": [
{
"id": "fa0eb091-8e35-49c7-b00f-269794a99a61",
"name": "Indiana Hoosiers",
"market": "Indiana",
"franchise_id": "fa0eb091-8e35-49c7-b00f-269794a99a61",
"seed": 10,
"type": "team"
},
{
"id": "d7f19bff-74e7-4b71-a221-12dfeb144fd8",
"name": "Notre Dame Fighting Irish",
"market": "Notre Dame",
"franchise_id": "d7f19bff-74e7-4b71-a221-12dfeb144fd8",
"seed": 7,
"type": "team"
},
{
"id": "ae68bc50-4135-47b5-b2f1-03d0669e54c8",
"name": "Texas Longhorns",
"market": "Texas",
"franchise_id": "ae68bc50-4135-47b5-b2f1-03d0669e54c8",
"seed": 5,
"type": "team"
},
{
"id": "619c5384-3660-44ac-b2ad-597ccb3854c7",
"name": "SMU Mustangs",
"market": "SMU",
"franchise_id": "619c5384-3660-44ac-b2ad-597ccb3854c7",
"seed": 11,
"type": "team"
},
{
"id": "2eef738d-c637-4b12-b8df-4b79efcce71e",
"name": "Georgia Bulldogs",
"market": "Georgia",
"franchise_id": "2eef738d-c637-4b12-b8df-4b79efcce71e",
"seed": 2,
"type": "team"
},
{
"id": "5c218a3b-a013-4037-97b6-603c9502b701",
"name": "Oregon Ducks",
"market": "Oregon",
"franchise_id": "5c218a3b-a013-4037-97b6-603c9502b701",
"seed": 1,
"type": "team"
},
{
"id": "95404613-f4f0-4280-ac27-85419215f8d1",
"name": "Clemson Tigers",
"market": "Clemson",
"franchise_id": "95404613-f4f0-4280-ac27-85419215f8d1",
"seed": 12,
"type": "team"
},
{
"id": "35aa5295-ad07-4b95-aad2-63d1d5bf9009",
"name": "Boise State Broncos",
"market": "Boise State",
"franchise_id": "35aa5295-ad07-4b95-aad2-63d1d5bf9009",
"seed": 3,
"type": "team"
},
{
"id": "00fd8418-0e62-4366-9a2a-d5f72850066c",
"name": "Arizona State Sun Devils",
"market": "Arizona State",
"franchise_id": "00fd8418-0e62-4366-9a2a-d5f72850066c",
"seed": 4,
"type": "team"
},
{
"id": "eeb3ce19-6ddd-4c91-afab-811c6cc81974",
"name": "Penn State Nittany Lions",
"market": "Penn State",
"franchise_id": "eeb3ce19-6ddd-4c91-afab-811c6cc81974",
"seed": 6,
"type": "team"
},
{
"id": "9ecb9f6b-df4a-4a92-aaa4-5d50a5286bdd",
"name": "Tennessee Volunteers",
"market": "Tennessee",
"franchise_id": "9ecb9f6b-df4a-4a92-aaa4-5d50a5286bdd",
"seed": 9,
"type": "team"
},
{
"id": "9a6d6f3f-021e-4ddd-8fac-ac4766239d87",
"name": "Ohio State Buckeyes",
"market": "Ohio State",
"franchise_id": "9a6d6f3f-021e-4ddd-8fac-ac4766239d87",
"seed": 8,
"type": "team"
}
]
}
]
}Brackets and seeds are available shortly after they are made official, and schedule information updates in real time as changes are made; pull daily or less depending on your use case. The weekly rankings that precede the field are covered on Tracking Standings and Rankings.
4. Follow the bracket wiring
The Tournament Schedule nests rounds[] > games[]; for the CFP the rounds are First Round, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, and National Championship, each holding its games with their scheduling details. Before the field is set, every slot holds the Team TBD placeholder; the placeholders are replaced with the actual team names and IDs once the regular season concludes and the playoff berths are finalized. The quarterfinals and semifinals are bowl games, so those entries carry the bowl's title ("Rose Bowl - Quarterfinal") and venue. Where a slot depends on an earlier result, it references the feeder game through a source object with an outcome: the 2024 National Championship's home slot reads "Cotton Bowl - Semifinal (win)" and its away slot "Orange Bowl - Semifinal (win)". The 2024 College Football Playoff as first published, shown trimmed to one game per round (both semifinals kept):
GET https://api.sportradar.com/ncaafb/trial/v7/en/tournaments/77b49a1b-e3a0-4833-9ab0-799367dd97b1/schedule.json
x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY{
"id": "77b49a1b-e3a0-4833-9ab0-799367dd97b1",
"name": "College Football Playoff",
"location": "Atlanta, GA, USA",
"status": "scheduled",
"league": {
"id": "26c1246a-2fc3-4b7e-8999-1685d3ab4676",
"name": "NCAA Football",
"alias": "NCAAFB"
},
"season": {
"id": "908fbc20-f5c7-11ee-a306-c311afc28263",
"year": 2024,
"type": "REG"
},
"rounds": [
{
"id": "9d9f0022-5125-40b0-a5c0-5e97b3d122c5",
"sequence": 1,
"name": "First Round",
"games": [
{
"id": "d3dab414-6d89-4b40-90a4-288223c699f2",
"title": "College Football Playoff - First Round",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"scheduled": "2024-12-21T17:00:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"conference_game": false,
"home": {
"name": "Team TBD",
"alias": "TBD",
"id": "e7ce7680-f058-11ee-89df-6558e107cb95"
},
"away": {
"name": "Team TBD",
"alias": "TBD",
"id": "e7ce7680-f058-11ee-89df-6558e107cb95"
}
}
]
},
{
"id": "bbdc9623-1645-45da-9fe7-1721cc6606ac",
"sequence": 2,
"name": "Quarterfinals",
"games": [
{
"id": "365d49dc-f9b5-4ac9-8aa5-3f432807994f",
"title": "Rose Bowl - Quarterfinal",
"parent_id": "9c77e6a1-d2c6-483a-a01e-150797e94e7e",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"local_game_date": "2025-01-01",
"scheduled": "2025-01-01T22:00:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"conference_game": false,
"time_zones": {
"venue": "US/Pacific"
},
"venue": {
"id": "18e670be-fbc5-4f4a-afe9-83f8e3e66940",
"name": "Rose Bowl",
"city": "Pasadena",
"state": "CA",
"country": "USA",
"zip": "91103",
"address": "1001 Rose Bowl Drive",
"capacity": 92542,
"surface": "turf",
"roof_type": "outdoor",
"sr_id": "sr:venue:1699",
"location": {
"lat": "34.1613",
"lng": "-118.1676"
}
},
"home": {
"name": "Team TBD",
"alias": "TBD",
"id": "e7ce7680-f058-11ee-89df-6558e107cb95"
},
"away": {
"name": "Team TBD",
"alias": "TBD",
"id": "e7ce7680-f058-11ee-89df-6558e107cb95"
}
}
]
},
{
"id": "4fbfeea3-03ff-4a9b-9872-eccc8de7e21f",
"sequence": 3,
"name": "Semifinals",
"games": [
{
"id": "fca98cb9-4f44-400f-831d-331b573fe857",
"title": "Orange Bowl - Semifinal",
"parent_id": "9d7dd93c-780d-475a-911a-e96bb123d6f3",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"local_game_date": "2025-01-09",
"scheduled": "2025-01-10T00:30:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"conference_game": false,
"home": {
"name": "Team TBD",
"alias": "TBD",
"id": "e7ce7680-f058-11ee-89df-6558e107cb95"
},
"away": {
"name": "Team TBD",
"alias": "TBD",
"id": "e7ce7680-f058-11ee-89df-6558e107cb95"
}
},
{
"id": "3f0f86aa-eabc-409b-88a5-7748e05d1ede",
"title": "Cotton Bowl - Semifinal",
"parent_id": "fe4592d6-7e25-4511-8a8c-f7d21644cff7",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"local_game_date": "2025-01-10",
"scheduled": "2025-01-11T00:30:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"conference_game": false,
"home": {
"name": "Team TBD",
"alias": "TBD",
"id": "e7ce7680-f058-11ee-89df-6558e107cb95"
},
"away": {
"name": "Team TBD",
"alias": "TBD",
"id": "e7ce7680-f058-11ee-89df-6558e107cb95"
}
}
]
},
{
"id": "3061a6b1-8cf7-497a-8c93-72755d3598e0",
"sequence": 4,
"name": "National Championship",
"games": [
{
"id": "5c0c9ff0-3d99-4844-bc73-03f1719be4f8",
"title": "CFP National Championship",
"parent_id": "d679c1cd-c879-4d1b-8de0-d88ec1916569",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"local_game_date": "2025-01-20",
"scheduled": "2025-01-21T00:30:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"conference_game": false,
"home": {
"name": "Cotton Bowl - Semifinal (win)",
"alias": "Cotton Bowl - Semifinal (win)",
"source": {
"id": "3f0f86aa-eabc-409b-88a5-7748e05d1ede",
"title": "Cotton Bowl - Semifinal",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"scheduled": "2025-01-11T00:30:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"outcome": "win"
}
},
"away": {
"name": "Orange Bowl - Semifinal (win)",
"alias": "Orange Bowl - Semifinal (win)",
"source": {
"id": "fca98cb9-4f44-400f-831d-331b573fe857",
"title": "Orange Bowl - Semifinal",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"scheduled": "2025-01-10T00:30:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"outcome": "win"
}
}
}
]
}
]
}
Start Building Your BracketYou can use this information to start constructing a playoff bracket in your application. By querying the tournament scheduling, you can populate the bracket with the correct matchups, scheduling details, and eventually, the actual team names as they become available. The home and away attributes for each game will be updated with the relevant teams, allowing you to dynamically update the bracket as the tournament progresses.
Schedule information updates in real time as changes are made to schedules and matchups, and the initial playoff schedule (with TBD matchups) is available shortly after the regular season schedule is released. Pull every hour or less depending on your use case, and use this feed for schedule information ahead of kickoff; for the status of a live game, use the game feeds on Tracking Live Games.
5. Watch matchups populate as rounds complete
As the tournament runs, the same feed fills in. The two samples below come from an NFL playoff tournament: the NFL tournament feeds (its Tournament Summary among them) share the NCAAFB structure, so they read the same way here. Midway through the first round, the Wild Card games carry teams (Houston Texans vs Cleveland Browns has already closed and carries its scoring totals; Buffalo Bills vs Pittsburgh Steelers is still scheduled), the Divisional and Conference Championship slots still hold Team TBD, and the Super Bowl's slots point at the two championship games through source objects. The NFL structure also wraps the first round's games in a bracketed[] layer that names the bracket:
GET https://api.sportradar.com/nfl/trial/v7/en/tournaments/fd927adf-128e-4b36-a1b8-ec7411f4d656/schedule.json
x-api-key: YOUR_API_KEY{
"id": "fd927adf-128e-4b36-a1b8-ec7411f4d656",
"name": "NFL Playoffs",
"location": "Las Vegas, NV, USA",
"status": "inprogress",
"league": {
"id": "3c6d318a-6164-4290-9bbc-bf9bb21cc4b8",
"name": "National Football League",
"alias": "NFL"
},
"season": {
"id": "736474f0-adc5-11ee-b174-6f0e0e094ae8",
"year": 2023,
"type": "PST"
},
"rounds": [
{
"id": "562a6827-0022-48d0-9aff-141317c9ee29",
"sequence": 1,
"name": "Wild Card Round",
"bracketed": [
{
"bracket": {
"id": "998dcb19-7060-41c4-b6ad-19efccc0470f",
"name": "NFL Playoffs",
"location": "Las Vegas, NV, USA"
},
"games": [
{
"id": "98ee8b76-6366-4e86-9464-2542e0454357",
"title": "Wild Card",
"status": "closed",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"local_game_date": "2024-01-13",
"scheduled": "2024-01-13T21:30:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"weather": "Partly cloudy Temp: 94 F, Humidity: 53%, Wind: N 2 mph",
"conference_game": true,
"home": {
"name": "Houston Texans",
"alias": "HOU",
"game_number": 1,
"id": "82d2d380-3834-4938-835f-aec541e5ece7"
},
"away": {
"name": "Cleveland Browns",
"alias": "CLE",
"game_number": 1,
"id": "d5a2eb42-8065-4174-ab79-0a6fa820e35e"
},
"scoring": {
"home_points": 6,
"away_points": 0
}
},
{
"id": "898786ea-e8ee-421f-b67f-578abee9f167",
"title": "Wild Card",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"local_game_date": "2024-01-15",
"scheduled": "2024-01-15T21:30:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"conference_game": true,
"home": {
"name": "Buffalo Bills",
"alias": "BUF",
"game_number": 2,
"id": "768c92aa-75ff-4a43-bcc0-f2798c2e1724"
},
"away": {
"name": "Pittsburgh Steelers",
"alias": "PIT",
"game_number": 2,
"id": "cb2f9f1f-ac67-424e-9e72-1475cb0ed398"
}
}
]
}
]
},
{
"id": "2e105f99-ce74-4ce4-a270-e4fa6dabadf3",
"sequence": 2,
"name": "Divisional Round",
"games": [
{
"id": "5cc17ff6-3c25-4fe6-839a-b6e255927666",
"title": "Divisional",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"scheduled": "2024-01-20T21:30:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"conference_game": true,
"home": {
"name": "Team TBD",
"alias": "TBD",
"id": "23ed0bf0-f058-11ee-9989-93cc4251593a"
},
"away": {
"name": "Team TBD",
"alias": "TBD",
"id": "23ed0bf0-f058-11ee-9989-93cc4251593a"
}
}
]
},
{
"id": "893e58ea-88c3-4735-9493-8c3d036673ed",
"sequence": 3,
"name": "Conference Championship Round",
"games": [
{
"id": "b4291c6f-8f55-459d-94ff-bb929746a03b",
"title": "AFC Championship",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"scheduled": "2024-01-27T23:30:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"conference_game": true,
"home": {
"name": "Team TBD",
"alias": "TBD",
"id": "23ed0bf0-f058-11ee-9989-93cc4251593a"
},
"away": {
"name": "Team TBD",
"alias": "TBD",
"id": "23ed0bf0-f058-11ee-9989-93cc4251593a"
}
}
]
},
{
"id": "ee0fc8ff-bf39-40b9-98ec-db2bef3944ff",
"sequence": 4,
"name": "Super Bowl",
"games": [
{
"id": "9e52bfac-0f6c-4e40-b3af-931a3864e67a",
"title": "Super Bowl LIX",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"scheduled": "2024-02-11T23:30:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"conference_game": false,
"home": {
"name": "AFC Championship (win)",
"alias": "AFC Championship (win)",
"source": {
"id": "b4291c6f-8f55-459d-94ff-bb929746a03b",
"title": "AFC Championship",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"scheduled": "2024-01-27T23:30:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"outcome": "win"
}
},
"away": {
"name": "NFC Championship (win)",
"alias": "NFC Championship (win)",
"source": {
"id": "3679c141-65b3-41e4-9880-fec6efe733b6",
"title": "NFC Championship",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "bowl",
"scheduled": "2024-01-27T20:00:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"outcome": "win"
}
}
}
]
}
]
}Once a feeder game reaches complete, the next round's slot resolves to the winning team on a 2-minute timer. Here the Divisional round has three matchups set (Baltimore Ravens vs Houston Texans, Buffalo Bills vs Kansas City Chiefs, San Francisco 49ers vs Los Angeles Rams) while the Dallas Cowboys' opponent still reads Team TBD with one Wild Card game, Tampa Bay Buccaneers vs Philadelphia Eagles, in created status:
{
"id": "fd927adf-128e-4b36-a1b8-ec7411f4d656",
"name": "NFL Playoffs",
"location": "Las Vegas, NV, USA",
"status": "inprogress",
"league": {
"id": "3c6d318a-6164-4290-9bbc-bf9bb21cc4b8",
"name": "National Football League",
"alias": "NFL"
},
"season": {
"id": "736474f0-adc5-11ee-b174-6f0e0e094ae8",
"year": 2023,
"type": "PST"
},
"rounds": [
{
"id": "562a6827-0022-48d0-9aff-141317c9ee29",
"sequence": 1,
"name": "Wild Card Round",
"bracketed": [
{
"bracket": {
"id": "998dcb19-7060-41c4-b6ad-19efccc0470f",
"name": "NFL Playoffs",
"location": "Las Vegas, NV, USA"
},
"games": [
{
"id": "320cc380-60a0-4da2-a14b-6748f3dd03ec",
"title": "Wild Card",
"status": "created",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"local_game_date": "2024-01-15",
"scheduled": "2024-01-16T01:15:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"weather": "Partly cloudy Temp: 93 F, Humidity: 60%, Wind: NNE 8 mph",
"conference_game": true,
"home": {
"name": "Tampa Bay Buccaneers",
"alias": "TB",
"game_number": 2,
"id": "4254d319-1bc7-4f81-b4ab-b5e6f3402b69"
},
"away": {
"name": "Philadelphia Eagles",
"alias": "PHI",
"game_number": 2,
"id": "386bdbf9-9eea-4869-bb9a-274b0bc66e80"
}
}
]
}
]
},
{
"id": "2e105f99-ce74-4ce4-a270-e4fa6dabadf3",
"sequence": 2,
"name": "Divisional Round",
"games": [
{
"id": "36616d16-dd1b-4d57-8686-0af34124782e",
"title": "Divisional",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"scheduled": "2024-01-21T20:00:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"conference_game": true,
"home": {
"name": "Dallas Cowboys",
"alias": "DAL",
"game_number": 3,
"id": "e627eec7-bbae-4fa4-8e73-8e1d6bc5c060"
},
"away": {
"name": "Team TBD",
"alias": "TBD",
"id": "23ed0bf0-f058-11ee-9989-93cc4251593a"
}
},
{
"id": "5cc17ff6-3c25-4fe6-839a-b6e255927666",
"title": "Divisional",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"scheduled": "2024-01-20T21:30:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"conference_game": true,
"home": {
"name": "Baltimore Ravens",
"alias": "BAL",
"game_number": 1,
"id": "ebd87119-b331-4469-9ea6-d51fe3ce2f1c"
},
"away": {
"name": "Houston Texans",
"alias": "HOU",
"game_number": 3,
"id": "82d2d380-3834-4938-835f-aec541e5ece7"
}
},
{
"id": "45b019a3-4148-4127-bfdf-7872bfb7d62c",
"title": "Divisional",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"scheduled": "2024-01-21T23:00:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"conference_game": true,
"home": {
"name": "Buffalo Bills",
"alias": "BUF",
"game_number": 3,
"id": "768c92aa-75ff-4a43-bcc0-f2798c2e1724"
},
"away": {
"name": "Kansas City Chiefs",
"alias": "KC",
"game_number": 3,
"id": "6680d28d-d4d2-49f6-aace-5292d3ec02c2"
}
},
{
"id": "2ec31b91-0246-435a-b9cd-25456a3c7acd",
"title": "Divisional",
"status": "scheduled",
"coverage": "full",
"game_type": "playoff",
"scheduled": "2024-01-21T01:15:00+00:00",
"entry_mode": "LDE",
"conference_game": true,
"home": {
"name": "San Francisco 49ers",
"alias": "SF",
"game_number": 1,
"id": "f0e724b0-4cbf-495a-be47-013907608da9"
},
"away": {
"name": "Los Angeles Rams",
"alias": "LA",
"game_number": 3,
"id": "2eff2a03-54d4-46ba-890e-2bc3925548f3"
}
}
]
}
]
}Both NFL responses are shown trimmed to the rounds discussed. The Schedule's rounds and results lay out as a bracket; the 2025 College Football Playoff, round by round:
6. Account for the CFP and FCS formats
The two tournaments differ in size, byes, and round names, which sets the shape of the bracket you render:
| CFP | FCS Playoffs | |
|---|---|---|
| Tournament size | 12 teams | 24 teams |
| Byes | Top 4 teams receive a bye in the First Round | Top 8 teams receive a bye in the First Round |
| Round names | First Round, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, CFP National Championship | First Round, Second Round, Quarterfinals, Semifinals, FCS National Championship |
A bye is a pass through the First Round: the 2024 CFP schedule in step 4 lists four First Round games for a 12-team field because the top four seeds (Oregon, Georgia, Boise State, and Arizona State in the Summary) enter at the Quarterfinals. Lay the bracket out from the Summary's seeds and let the Schedule's source objects place each winner.
Common Use Cases
- Bracket view: Tournament Summary for seeds plus Tournament Schedule for wiring
- Playoff gamecast: the Tournament Schedule's game IDs plus the Tracking Live Games workflow
- Bowl-game pages: quarterfinal and semifinal entries carry their bowl titles and venues
- FCS bracket: the same three feeds against the FCS Playoffs GUID from the Tournament List
Best Practices
- Confirm the season in the Seasons feed first, then address every tournament feed under
REG; tournament data runs from the 2024 season onward - Use the TBD placeholder team convention from ID Handling for unresolved slots in schedule views, and
sourceobjects for bracket logic - Re-pull the Tournament Schedule after each playoff game reaches
complete; slots resolve to concrete teams on a 2-minute timer as feeders finish - Bowl games carry a
parent_idshared by every season's edition of that bowl, so one key follows a bowl across years - Postseason games use the same status lifecycle as the regular season, including
createdpreloads; see Game Status Workflow - Pull the Tournament Schedule every hour or less and the Tournament Summary daily or less, depending on your use case; the TTL for every feed is listed on Update Frequencies
Updated 8 days ago