Is there a free college football rankings 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.

Does it include the College Football Playoff rankings?

Yes, from the committee's first release of the season, as poll=cfp. The committee ranks without votes, so points and firstPlaceVotes are null for that poll.

Can I get last week's AP poll?

Yes. Pass week= (and season= for an earlier season) to read that week of every poll; without it you get the latest release.

How do I join a ranking to a game?

Each ranked team carries the same team id as /events and /teams, so you can show "#5 Oregon" next to a score.

College football rankings API

The AP Top 25, the AFCA Coaches Poll and the College Football Playoff rankings in JSON, plus FCS and Division II/III polls: each ranked team with rank, previous rank, record, points and first-place votes, and the teams receiving votes. Latest release by default, or any past week of the season.

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/rankings

College football and men's college basketball only.
CFP rankings have no points or first-place votes (null).

Live College Football example

Request

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RSA_API_KEY" \
  "https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/college-football/rankings?poll=ap"

Response captured from live data at 2026-11-07 13:48 UTC (refreshed every few minutes). Long arrays are trimmed; meta.rateLimit values are illustrative for a Free key. AP Top 25, Week 10: trimmed to the top 3 of 25 ranked teams.

Response

{
  "success": true,
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "1",
      "name": "AP Top 25",
      "shortName": "AP Poll",
      "type": "ap",
      "week": {
        "number": 10,
        "label": "Week 10",
        "seasonType": 2
      },
      "season": 2026,
      "date": "2026-11-01T07:00Z",
      "lastUpdated": "2026-11-01T22:08Z",
      "ranks": [
        {
          "rank": 1,
          "previousRank": 1,
          "trend": "-",
          "points": 1740,
          "firstPlaceVotes": 62,
          "record": "8-0",
          "team": {
            "id": "2390",
            "name": "Hurricanes",
            "location": "Miami",
            "displayName": "Miami Hurricanes",
            "abbreviation": "MIA",
            "conference": "ACC",
            "logo": "https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/images/proxy?id=GgcVSgNPTUMITUgaFFQVVVQXBVwOHV5LRQBZD1lbBllDXR0CWxFaV1xZTB9aXQpYQVRe"
          }
        },
        {
          "rank": 2,
          "previousRank": 3,
          "trend": "+1",
          "points": 1648,
          "firstPlaceVotes": 7,
          "record": "7-1",
          "team": {
            "id": "61",
            "name": "Bulldogs",
            "location": "Georgia",
            "displayName": "Georgia Bulldogs",
            "abbreviation": "UGA",
            "conference": "SEC",
            "logo": "https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/images/proxy?id=GgcVSgNPTUMITUgaFFQVVVQXBVwOHV5LRQBZD1lbBllDXR0CWxFaV1xZTBtYSkoYVg"
          }
        },
        {
          "rank": 3,
          "previousRank": 6,
          "trend": "+3",
          "points": 1540,
          "firstPlaceVotes": 1,
          "record": "8-0",
          "team": {
            "id": "254",
            "name": "Utes",
            "location": "Utah",
            "displayName": "Utah Utes",
            "abbreviation": "UTAH",
            "conference": "Big 12",
            "logo": "https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/images/proxy?id=GgcVSgNPTUMITUgaFFQVVVQXBVwOHV5LRQBZD1lbBllDXR0CWxFaV1xZTB9cUBQGX10"
          }
        }
      ],
      "othersReceivingVotes": [
        {
          "points": 79,
          "record": "0-0",
          "team": {
            "id": "77",
            "name": "Wildcats",
            "location": "Northwestern",
            "displayName": "Northwestern Wildcats",
            "abbreviation": "NU",
            "conference": "Big Ten",
            "logo": "https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/images/proxy?id=GgcVSgNPTUMITUgaFFQVVVQXBVwOHV5LRQBZD1lbBllDXR0CWxFaV1xZTBpeSkoYVg"
          }
        }
      ],
      "droppedOut": [
        {
          "previousRank": 19,
          "record": "0-0",
          "team": {
            "id": "2567",
            "name": "Mustangs",
            "location": "SMU",
            "displayName": "SMU Mustangs",
            "abbreviation": "SMU",
            "conference": "ACC",
            "logo": "https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/images/proxy?id=GgcVSgNPTUMITUgaFFQVVVQXBVwOHV5LRQBZD1lbBllDXR0CWxFaV1xZTB9cUg1YQVRe"
          }
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "count": 1,
    "note": "Latest release of each poll.",
    "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/rankings?poll=ap"

JavaScript (fetch)

const res = await fetch("https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/football/leagues/college-football/rankings?poll=ap", {
  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/rankings?poll=ap",
    headers={"Authorization": f"Bearer {os.environ['RSA_API_KEY']}"},
    timeout=10,
)
body = res.json()
print(body["data"])

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
id	string
name	string
shortName	string
type	string	ap, usa (coaches), cfp, fcs, afca (Division II / III)
week	object
season	integer	College basketball seasons are named by the year they end (2026-27 = 2027).
date	string
lastUpdated	string
ranks	RankEntry[]
othersReceivingVotes	object[]
droppedOut	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 rankings 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.
Does it include the College Football Playoff rankings?: Yes, from the committee's first release of the season, as poll=cfp. The committee ranks without votes, so points and firstPlaceVotes are null for that poll.
Can I get last week's AP poll?: Yes. Pass week= (and season= for an earlier season) to read that week of every poll; without it you get the latest release.
How do I join a ranking to a game?: Each ranked team carries the same team id as /events and /teams, so you can show "#5 Oregon" next to a score.