Is there a free college basketball play-by-play 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 cover every Division I game?

The events list covers every Division I men's game on the schedule (pass date=YYYY-MM-DD for one day's full slate), and plays were returned for each finished game we checked in the first week of the season.

Can I get plays pushed during March Madness?

On paid plans, each new play is also pushed to you: webhooks send event.play and the WebSocket stream sends event_play, so you don't have to poll the plays endpoint during a game.

NCAA men's college basketball play-by-play API

Play-by-play for Division I men's college basketball games, from tip-off to the final horn: each play's text, type, clock, half and score. Checked on the first week of the 2026-27 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.

AvailableVerified 2026-11-05 on the first week of games (about 440-520 plays per game).

Get a free API key See plans

Endpoint

GET/api/v1/sports/basketball/leagues/mens-college-basketball/events/{eventId}/plays

Live Men's College Basketball example

Request

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RSA_API_KEY" \
  "https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/basketball/leagues/mens-college-basketball/events/401920685/plays?limit=3"

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. Plays from UConn Huskies at Michigan Wolverines.

Response

{
  "success": true,
  "data": [
    {
      "id": "401920685120826439",
      "sequenceNumber": "120826439",
      "text": "Start game",
      "shortText": "Start game",
      "alternativeText": "Start game",
      "type": {
        "id": "615",
        "text": "Jumpball"
      },
      "period": 1,
      "clock": {
        "value": 1200,
        "displayValue": "20:00"
      },
      "wallClock": "2026-11-07T01:03:56Z",
      "homeScore": 0,
      "awayScore": 0,
      "scoringPlay": false,
      "scoreValue": 0,
      "situation": null,
      "endSituation": null,
      "athletes": [],
      "priority": false,
      "modified": "2026-11-07T01:03Z"
    },
    {
      "id": "401920685120826478",
      "sequenceNumber": "120826478",
      "text": "Jump Ball won by Michigan",
      "shortText": "Jump Ball won by Michigan",
      "alternativeText": "Jump Ball won by Michigan",
      "type": {
        "id": "615",
        "text": "Jumpball"
      },
      "period": 1,
      "clock": {
        "value": 1198,
        "displayValue": "19:58"
      },
      "wallClock": "2026-11-07T01:03:58Z",
      "homeScore": 0,
      "awayScore": 0,
      "scoringPlay": false,
      "scoreValue": 0,
      "situation": null,
      "endSituation": null,
      "athletes": [
        {
          "id": "5149078",
          "name": "Moustapha Thiam",
          "displayName": "Moustapha Thiam",
          "shortName": "M. Thiam",
          "position": "C",
          "team": {
            "id": "130"
          },
          "order": 1
        }
      ],
      "priority": false,
      "modified": "2026-11-07T01:04Z"
    },
    {
      "id": "401920685120826481",
      "sequenceNumber": "120826481",
      "text": "Jump Ball lost by UConn",
      "shortText": "Jump Ball lost by UConn",
      "alternativeText": "Jump Ball lost by UConn",
      "type": {
        "id": "615",
        "text": "Jumpball"
      },
      "period": 1,
      "clock": {
        "value": 1198,
        "displayValue": "19:58"
      },
      "wallClock": "2026-11-07T01:03:58Z",
      "homeScore": 0,
      "awayScore": 0,
      "scoringPlay": false,
      "scoreValue": 0,
      "situation": null,
      "endSituation": null,
      "athletes": [
        {
          "id": "5292602",
          "name": "Na'jai Hines",
          "displayName": "Na'jai Hines",
          "shortName": "N. Hines",
          "position": "C",
          "team": {
            "id": "41"
          },
          "order": 1
        }
      ],
      "priority": false,
      "modified": "2026-11-07T01:04Z"
    }
  ],
  "meta": {
    "pagination": {
      "page": 1,
      "pageSize": 3,
      "total": 515,
      "totalPages": 172,
      "hasNextPage": true,
      "hasPreviousPage": false
    },
    "rateLimit": {
      "limit": 125,
      "remaining": 124,
      "reset": 1796083200000
    }
  }
}

Code samples

curl

curl -H "Authorization: Bearer $RSA_API_KEY" \
  "https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/basketball/leagues/mens-college-basketball/events/401920685/plays?limit=3"

JavaScript (fetch)

const res = await fetch("https://www.realtimesportsapi.com/api/v1/sports/basketball/leagues/mens-college-basketball/events/401920685/plays?limit=3", {
  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/basketball/leagues/mens-college-basketball/events/401920685/plays?limit=3",
    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_plays with sport "basketball" and league "mens-college-basketball" and pick a finished game from get_events and summarize its scoring plays for Men's College Basketball.

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
id	string
sequenceNumber	string
text	string
shortText	string
alternativeText	string
type	object
period	integer
clock	object
wallClock	string
homeScore	integer
awayScore	integer
scoringPlay	boolean
scoreValue	integer
scoringType	string
situation	object
endSituation	object
yardsGained	integer
teamId	string
athletes	PlayAthlete[]
priority	boolean
modified	string

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 basketball play-by-play 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 cover every Division I game?: The events list covers every Division I men's game on the schedule (pass date=YYYY-MM-DD for one day's full slate), and plays were returned for each finished game we checked in the first week of the season.
Can I get plays pushed during March Madness?: On paid plans, each new play is also pushed to you: webhooks send event.play and the WebSocket stream sends event_play, so you don't have to poll the plays endpoint during a game.