espn_cfb_game_predictor: *ESPN College Football Game Predictor (BPI Matchup...

In cfbfastR: Access College Football Play by Play Data

ESPN College Football Game Predictor (BPI Matchup Predictor)

Description

Get ESPN's pre-game matchup predictor (Football Power Index game projection) for a single college football game.

Usage

espn_cfb_game_predictor(game_id = NULL, team_detail = TRUE)

Arguments

game_id	(Integer required): ESPN game identifier for a completed game.
team_detail	(Logical): when TRUE (default), fetch the ESPN team catalog once and join friendly team fields next to the team_id column (see Details). Set FALSE to skip the catalog fetch and the join.

Details

Wraps the ESPN core-v2 endpoint events/{game_id}/competitions/{game_id}/predictor. ESPN's predictor resource carries one statistics block per team (home and away); this wrapper flattens both into one long frame – one row per (team x predictor metric). Metrics include each team's projected win probability (gameProjection), predicted point total, and matchup-quality scores.

This endpoint responds ⁠HTTP 400⁠ for future / not-yet-scheduled games and is only reliably populated for completed games. The ⁠@examples⁠ use a finished game; pass game_id values for completed games.

When team_detail = TRUE (the default) the ESPN team catalog (espn_cfb_teams()) is fetched once and friendly team fields are joined in next to the team_id column – team_name, team_abbreviation, team_location, team_display_name, team_short_display_name, team_nickname, team_color, team_alternate_color, team_logo_href, and team_logo_dark_href. A catalog failure degrades to NA rather than erroring the wrapper. Set team_detail = FALSE to skip the catalog fetch and the join.

Value

A data frame with one row per team-predictor metric:

col_name	types	description
game_id	character	ESPN game identifier.
matchup_name	character	Predictor matchup name (e.g. ⁠TNTC at Georgia⁠).
matchup_short_name	character	Short predictor matchup name (e.g. TNTC @ UGA).
last_modified	character	ISO timestamp the predictor was last run.
team_side	character	home or away.
team_id	character	ESPN team id (parsed from team_ref).
team_name	character	Team nickname; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_abbreviation	character	Team abbreviation; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_location	character	Team location / school name; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_display_name	character	Full team display name; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_short_display_name	character	Short team display name; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_nickname	character	Team nickname label; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_color	character	Primary team color; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_alternate_color	character	Alternate team color; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_logo_href	character	Default team logo URL; team_detail = TRUE only.
team_logo_dark_href	character	Dark-variant team logo URL; team_detail = TRUE only.
stat_name	character	Predictor metric key (e.g. gameProjection).
abbreviation	character	Metric abbreviation.
display_name	character	Human-readable metric name.
short_display_name	character	Short human-readable metric name.
value	numeric	Metric value.
display_value	character	Display-formatted metric value as shown on ESPN.
description	character	ESPN's description of the metric.
team_ref	character	⁠$ref⁠ URL to the team-in-season resource.

See Also

Other ESPN CFB Functions: espn_cfb_award(), espn_cfb_awards(), espn_cfb_clear_cache(), espn_cfb_coach(), espn_cfb_coach_record(), espn_cfb_coaches(), espn_cfb_franchise(), espn_cfb_franchises(), espn_cfb_futures(), espn_cfb_game_broadcasts(), espn_cfb_game_drive_plays(), espn_cfb_game_drives(), espn_cfb_game_leaders(), espn_cfb_game_odds(), espn_cfb_game_pbp(), espn_cfb_game_play(), espn_cfb_game_player_box(), espn_cfb_game_player_statistics(), espn_cfb_game_powerindex(), espn_cfb_game_probabilities(), espn_cfb_game_situation(), espn_cfb_game_status(), espn_cfb_game_team_leaders(), espn_cfb_game_team_linescores(), espn_cfb_game_team_records(), espn_cfb_game_team_roster(), espn_cfb_game_team_statistics(), espn_cfb_game_teams(), espn_cfb_groups(), espn_cfb_pbp_v2(), espn_cfb_player(), espn_cfb_player_career_stats(), espn_cfb_player_eventlog(), espn_cfb_player_gamelog(), espn_cfb_player_overview(), espn_cfb_player_seasons(), espn_cfb_player_splits(), espn_cfb_player_stats_v3(), espn_cfb_players(), espn_cfb_position(), espn_cfb_positions(), espn_cfb_powerindex(), espn_cfb_qbr(), espn_cfb_rankings(), espn_cfb_recruits(), espn_cfb_season_info(), espn_cfb_season_types(), espn_cfb_season_weeks(), espn_cfb_seasons(), espn_cfb_standings(), espn_cfb_team(), espn_cfb_team_ats(), espn_cfb_team_awards(), espn_cfb_team_coaches(), espn_cfb_team_events(), espn_cfb_team_leaders(), espn_cfb_team_powerindex(), espn_cfb_team_ranks(), espn_cfb_team_record(), espn_cfb_team_roster(), espn_cfb_team_schedule(), espn_cfb_teams(), espn_cfb_unnest_plays(), espn_cfb_venue(), espn_cfb_venues(), espn_cfb_week_rankings()

Examples

  try(espn_cfb_game_predictor(game_id = 401628339))
  try(espn_cfb_game_predictor(game_id = 401628339, team_detail = FALSE))

cfbfastR documentation built on Aug. 24, 2026, 5:13 p.m.