Is there a free college football box score API?

Yes. A free key (no card) includes every endpoint and league: 1,000 calls in the first 30 days, then 125 a month at 1 request per second. Paid plans start at $29/month for 10,000 calls and add webhooks and WebSocket.

How do I find a game's id?

Fetch a week with /seasons/{season}/schedule?week=N (or one day with /events?date=YYYY-MM-DD) and use the event id with /events/{eventId}/boxscore.

Are box scores available during the game?

Yes, box scores update while the game is in progress and are final afterwards. Data typically runs 20-30 seconds behind live play, so it suits apps, alerts, dashboards and bots, not in-play betting.

College football box score API

Team totals and player stat lines for a college football game, live or final, in one call per game.

Data is aggregated from public sources and is typically 20-30 seconds behind live play (about 1 second after our source). There is no SLA.

AvailableReturned College Football data when checked.

Get a free API key See plans

Endpoint

GET/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/college-football/events/{eventId}/boxscore

Live College Football example

Request

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RSA_API_KEY" \
  "https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/college-football/events/401860924/boxscore"

Response captured from live data at 2026-11-07 14:05 UTC (refreshed every few minutes). Long arrays are trimmed; meta.rateLimit values are illustrative for a Free key. Box score for Oregon State Beavers at Fresno State Bulldogs; player lists trimmed to 2 of 36 (home) and 35 (away).

Response

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "homeTeam": {
      "id": "278",
      "name": "Fresno State Bulldogs",
      "abbreviation": "FRES",
      "score": 38
    },
    "awayTeam": {
      "id": "204",
      "name": "Oregon State Beavers",
      "abbreviation": "ORST",
      "score": 22
    },
    "homePlayers": [
      {
        "id": "5010409",
        "name": "Jayden Mandal",
        "jersey": "7",
        "categories": {
          "passing": {
            "completions/passingAttempts": "11/17",
            "passingYards": "202",
            "yardsPerPassAttempt": "11.9",
            "passingTouchdowns": "2",
            "interceptions": "1",
            "adjQBR": "83.8"
          },
          "rushing": {
            "rushingAttempts": "8",
            "rushingYards": "34",
            "yardsPerRushAttempt": "4.3",
            "rushingTouchdowns": "2",
            "longRushing": "15"
          },
          "fumbles": {
            "fumbles": "1",
            "fumblesLost": "0",
            "fumblesRecovered": "0"
          }
        }
      },
      {
        "id": "5175334",
        "name": "Bryson Donelson",
        "jersey": "6",
        "categories": {
          "rushing": {
            "rushingAttempts": "16",
            "rushingYards": "108",
            "yardsPerRushAttempt": "6.8",
            "rushingTouchdowns": "1",
            "longRushing": "63"
          }
        }
      }
    ],
    "awayPlayers": [
      {
        "id": "5212654",
        "name": "Braden Atkinson",
        "jersey": "2",
        "categories": {
          "passing": {
            "completions/passingAttempts": "33/59",
            "passingYards": "373",
            "yardsPerPassAttempt": "6.3",
            "passingTouchdowns": "1",
            "interceptions": "0",
            "adjQBR": "39.6"
          },
          "rushing": {
            "rushingAttempts": "9",
            "rushingYards": "-14",
            "yardsPerRushAttempt": "-1.6",
            "rushingTouchdowns": "0",
            "longRushing": "13"
          },
          "fumbles": {
            "fumbles": "2",
            "fumblesLost": "2",
            "fumblesRecovered": "0"
          }
        }
      },
      {
        "id": "5167313",
        "name": "Cornell Hatcher Jr.",
        "jersey": "3",
        "categories": {
          "rushing": {
            "rushingAttempts": "9",
            "rushingYards": "53",
            "yardsPerRushAttempt": "5.9",
            "rushingTouchdowns": "1",
            "longRushing": "14"
          }
        }
      }
    ],
    "periodScores": {
      "home": [
        7,
        14,
        17,
        "... 1 more"
      ],
      "away": [
        3,
        6,
        7,
        "... 1 more"
      ]
    }
  },
  "meta": {
    "rateLimit": {
      "limit": 125,
      "remaining": 124,
      "reset": 1796083200000
    }
  }
}

Code samples

curl

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RSA_API_KEY" \
  "https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/college-football/events/401860924/boxscore"

JavaScript (fetch)

const res = await fetch("https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/college-football/events/401860924/boxscore", {
  headers: { Authorization: `Bearer ${process.env.RSA_API_KEY}` }
});
const { success, data, meta } = await res.json();
console.log(data, meta.rateLimit);

Python (requests)

import os, requests

res = requests.get(
    "https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/college-football/events/401860924/boxscore",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['RSA_API_KEY']}"},
    timeout=10,
)
body = res.json()
print(body["data"])

MCP prompt (Claude, Cursor, ChatGPT)

Using the Realtime Sports MCP server (https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/mcp), call get_box_score with sport "football" and league "college-football" and pick a finished game from get_events and list the top performers for College Football.

Connect the hosted MCP server first: setup guide. Each tool call counts as one API call.

Each request above is 1 call. Free covers 125 calls a month after a 1,000-call first month, at 1 request/second. Starter is $29/month for 10,000 calls (about 333 a day) plus webhooks and WebSocket, so you stop polling for changes; 7-day free trial. Compare plans

Fields

Field	Type	Notes
homeTeam	object
awayTeam	object
homePlayers	object[]
awayPlayers	object[]
periodScores	object

Rate limits and pricing

Plan	Price	Calls	Rate	WebSocket	Webhooks
Free	$0	125/mo (1,000 first 30 days)	1/s	500 msgs/mo	No
Starter	$29/mo ($290/yr)	10,000/mo	5/s	Shares monthly pool	Shares monthly pool
Growth	$49/mo ($490/yr)	25,000/mo	10/s	Shares monthly pool	Shares monthly pool
Pro	$99/mo ($990/yr)	50,000/mo	20/s	100,000 msgs/mo	25,000/mo
Business	$179/mo ($1,790/yr)	150,000/mo	40/s	300,000 msgs/mo	75,000/mo
Scale	$299/mo ($2,990/yr)	500,000/mo	100/s	500,000 msgs/mo	100,000/mo

Every successful REST call counts as one call. Over the limit you get HTTP 429 with a Retry-After header. No SLA. Full pricing.

FAQ

Is there a free college football box score API?: Yes. A free key (no card) includes every endpoint and league: 1,000 calls in the first 30 days, then 125 a month at 1 request per second. Paid plans start at $29/month for 10,000 calls and add webhooks and WebSocket.
How do I find a game's id?: Fetch a week with /seasons/{season}/schedule?week=N (or one day with /events?date=YYYY-MM-DD) and use the event id with /events/{eventId}/boxscore.
Are box scores available during the game?: Yes, box scores update while the game is in progress and are final afterwards. Data typically runs 20-30 seconds behind live play, so it suits apps, alerts, dashboards and bots, not in-play betting.