Copy page

Getting Started

Data availability

Use this page to confirm that CBBD has the seasons needed for your project. Choose a data family, check its range and notes, then open the linked API operation to build a request.

How to read the ranges

• Ranges are inclusive and describe records available on the verification date. New seasons and historical corrections can be added afterward.
• Basketball seasons use the ending year: season=2026 means the 2025–26 season, and season=2027 means 2026–27. Recruiting classes, portal cycles, and NBA Draft years follow their own calendars.
• A listed season means records are available. It does not guarantee that every team, game, player, or response field is complete. Known gaps and sparse early coverage are called out below.
• An empty response or a missing field should not automatically be treated as a zero. Coverage also depends on the operation's filters and required underlying data.

Games, schedules, and box scores

Data	Available seasons	API access	Notes
Games, scores, and schedules	1949–present	Games	Only 22 game records are available for 1949. Historical coverage varies.
Team season records and scoring totals	1949–present	Team season stats	Aggregated from available completed games. Detailed box-score fields have a narrower range than wins, losses, and scores.
Team box-score statistics	2003–present	Game team stats, team season stats	Most 2003–04 box-score fields are missing. Populated shooting totals are limited to one game in 2003 and 12 games in 2004; coverage becomes much broader in 2005.
Player box-score and season statistics	2003–present	Game player stats, player season stats	Player statistics with recorded minutes are available for only one game in 2003 and 12 games in 2004. Broader coverage begins in 2005; individual fields and players can still be missing.
Team statistics leaderboard	2015–present	Leaderboard	Stored season aggregates have a shorter history than the team season stats operation.
Live scoreboard	Current games	Scoreboard	A live view with no historical season selector. Use the games operation for historical results and schedules.

Game lists and team box-score operations return at most 3,000 records per request. Use team, conference, or date filters to retrieve smaller slices; a single broad request may not contain every record in a season.

Plays, shooting, and lineups

Data	Available seasons	API access	Notes
Play-by-play	2003; 2006–present	Game plays, team plays, player plays	Only 18 games have plays in 2003. No plays are available for 2004 or 2005. Coverage expands in later seasons; player requests also require participant attribution.
Team and player shooting breakdowns	2003; 2006–present	Team shooting, player shooting	Derived from qualifying shot events, with the same missing seasons as play-by-play. Player breakdowns additionally require a matching shooter in the play text and participants.
Shot coordinates	2019–present	Plays	Returned in shotInfo.location when both coordinates are available. Many shots have no location; shot-type breakdowns have a longer history than coordinates.
Substitutions	2024–present	Game substitutions, team substitutions, player substitutions	Limited records exist for 212 games in 2013. No substitution records are available for 2014–2023.
Lineup statistics	2024–present	Game lineups, team lineups	Requires five overlapping player stints and plays with usable elapsed times. The older 2013 substitution records do not produce lineup statistics.

Ratings and probabilities

Data	Available seasons	API access	Notes
SRS	1950–present	SRS ratings	Team coverage depends on available ratings and season-specific conference membership.
Elo	1950–present	Elo ratings	Returns each team's latest ending Elo from qualifying completed games in a season.
Adjusted efficiency	2014–present	Adjusted ratings	Offensive, defensive, and net ratings have a shorter history than SRS and Elo.
In-game win probability	2003; 2006–present	Plays	Returned as homeWinProbability. Follows the play-by-play gaps; some plays have no stored probability.
Game excitement	2003; 2006–present	Games	Supplemental excitement values are available only for a subset of games.
Possessions and possession-based box-score metrics	2003; 2006–present	Game team stats, team season stats	Stored possession counts are absent in 2004–05. Pace and efficiency fields also need the inputs required by each calculation; a box score alone does not guarantee these values.

Teams, rosters, and player movement

Data	Available seasons	API access	Notes
Team and conference affiliations	1893–present	Teams, directory, conference history	Membership history starts with only two teams in 1893. Current memberships can have an open-ended end season; this does not establish future schedules or results.
Rosters	2003–present	Rosters	Player membership ranges support these seasons. Team coverage and biographical fields vary; a returned team can have an empty player list.
Team season overviews	2014–present	Season overview	Stored overviews combine datasets with different ranges.
Transfer portal	2021–present	Portal transfers	The season filter follows the portal cycle. Destination teams and player details can be incomplete.

Polls, recruiting, and the NBA Draft

Data	Available seasons or years	API access	Notes
AP Top 25	1949–present	Rankings	Historical poll sizes and the number of stored weekly snapshots vary.
Coaches Poll	2003–present	Rankings	Coverage follows the available poll snapshots.
High-school recruits	2007–present	Recruits	The year is the recruiting class. Player recruiting coverage starts later than team recruiting rankings.
Team recruiting rankings	2003–present	Team recruiting	Only teams with stored rankings are included; coverage varies by class.
NBA Draft picks	2001–present	Draft picks	The year is the draft year. Picks can come from colleges, international teams, or other programs, so college associations are not available for every pick.

Betting lines, broadcasts, and reference data

Data	Available seasons	API access	Notes
Betting lines	2013–present	Lines	Provider, opening line, total, and moneyline coverage varies by game. A returned game can have an empty lines list.
Broadcast listings	2011–present	Broadcasts	Listings are not available for every game.
Reference lists	Not season-based	Conferences, venues, play types, line providers, draft teams, draft positions	These operations return lookup information rather than a season-by-season history.

Corrections

Historical source data can be corrected after publication. If a response inside a listed range appears incomplete, include the operation, season, team, and available game or player identifiers when reporting it through CBBD on GitHub or the CFBD Discord.