espn_cfb_team_roster: *ESPN College Football Team Roster (Season-Scoped)*

In cfbfastR: Access College Football Play by Play Data

ESPN College Football Team Roster (Season-Scoped)

Description

Get the season roster for a single college football team – one row per athlete with biographical detail, position, jersey number, and class/experience.

Usage

espn_cfb_team_roster(
  team_id = NULL,
  year = NULL,
  position_detail = TRUE,
  team_detail = TRUE
)

Arguments

team_id	(Integer required): ESPN team id.
year	(Integer required): Season, 4 digit format (YYYY). Minimum value accepted: 2004
position_detail	(Logical): when TRUE (default), fetch the ESPN position catalog once and join it onto position_id, appending the five ⁠position_*⁠ detail columns shown in the Value table. A catalog failure degrades to NA rather than erroring the wrapper. Set FALSE to skip the extra fetch and the join.
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 season athlete index sports.core.api.espn.com/v2/sports/football/leagues/college-football/seasons/{year}/teams/{team_id}/athletes. The index returns one ⁠$ref⁠ per athlete; this wrapper dereferences each athlete resource and flattens it into a row. The site-v2 roster endpoint is deliberately not used: it returns only the team's current roster and silently ignores a season query parameter, so it cannot deliver historical rosters. The core-v2 path used here is genuinely season-scoped.

Because each athlete is dereferenced individually, a full roster is roughly 150-220 HTTP requests; allow a few seconds per call.

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, inserted immediately after team_id. A catalog failure degrades to NA rather than erroring the wrapper. Set team_detail = FALSE to skip the catalog fetch and the join.

When position_detail = TRUE (the default) the ESPN position catalog (espn_cfb_positions()) is fetched once and joined onto the position_id column, appending the five ⁠position_*⁠ detail columns (position_name, position_display_name, position_abbreviation, position_leaf, position_parent_id). A catalog failure degrades to NA rather than erroring the wrapper. Set position_detail = FALSE to skip the extra fetch and the join.

Value

A data frame with one row per athlete:

col_name	types	description
season	integer	Season (4-digit year).
team_id	character	ESPN team id.
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.
athlete_id	character	ESPN athlete id.
first_name	character	Athlete first name.
last_name	character	Athlete last name.
full_name	character	Athlete full name.
display_name	character	Athlete display name.
jersey	character	Jersey number.
position	character	Position display name.
position_abbr	character	Position abbreviation.
height	numeric	Height in inches.
display_height	character	Human-readable height (e.g. ⁠6' 1"⁠).
weight	numeric	Weight in pounds.
display_weight	character	Human-readable weight (e.g. ⁠205 lbs⁠).
experience	integer	Years of experience.
class	character	Class / experience label (e.g. Junior).
birth_city	character	Birth city.
birth_state	character	Birth state.
birth_country	character	Birth country.
status	character	Athlete status (e.g. Active).
active	logical	Whether the athlete is active.
headshot_href	character	URL of the athlete headshot image.
position_id	character	ESPN position id; position_detail = TRUE only.
position_name	character	Position name (e.g. Quarterback); position_detail = TRUE only.
position_display_name	character	Human-readable position name; position_detail = TRUE only.
position_abbreviation	character	Position abbreviation (e.g. QB); position_detail = TRUE only.
position_leaf	logical	TRUE for a most-specific (leaf) position; position_detail = TRUE only.
position_parent_id	character	ESPN id of the parent position; position_detail = TRUE only.

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_predictor(), 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_schedule(), espn_cfb_teams(), espn_cfb_unnest_plays(), espn_cfb_venue(), espn_cfb_venues(), espn_cfb_week_rankings()

Examples

  try(espn_cfb_team_roster(team_id = 61, year = 2024))
  try(espn_cfb_team_roster(team_id = 61, year = 2024,
                           position_detail = FALSE))
  try(espn_cfb_team_roster(team_id = 61, year = 2024,
                           team_detail = FALSE))

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