Get each team's statistical leaders (passing, rushing, receiving, ...) for a single college football game.
Value
A data frame with one row per team-category-leader:
| col_name | types | description |
| game_id | character | ESPN game identifier. |
| team_id | character | ESPN team id for the team. |
| 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. |
| home_away | character | home or away. |
| category_name | character | Leader category key (e.g. passingLeader). |
| category_display | character | Human-readable category name. |
| category_short_display | character | Short human-readable category name. |
| category_abbrev | character | Category abbreviation. |
| rank | integer | Leader rank within the category (1 = top performer). |
| athlete_id | character | ESPN athlete id (parsed from athlete_ref). |
| leader_team_id | character | ESPN team id of the leader (parsed from leader_team_ref). |
| leader_team_name | character | Leader's team nickname; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| leader_team_abbreviation | character | Leader's team abbreviation; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| leader_team_location | character | Leader's team location; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| leader_team_display_name | character | Leader's team full display name; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| leader_team_short_display_name | character | Leader's team short display name; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| leader_team_nickname | character | Leader's team nickname label; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| leader_team_color | character | Leader's team primary color; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| leader_team_alternate_color | character | Leader's team alternate color; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| leader_team_logo_href | character | Leader's team default logo URL; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| leader_team_logo_dark_href | character | Leader's team dark logo URL; team_detail = TRUE only. |
| value | numeric | Leading statistic value. |
| display_value | character | ESPN's pre-formatted stat line for the leader. |
| athlete_ref | character | $ref URL to the athlete-in-event resource. |
| leader_team_ref | character | $ref URL to the leader's team resource. |
| statistics_ref | character | $ref URL to the leader's game-statistics resource. |
Details
Wraps the ESPN core-v2 endpoint
events/{game_id}/competitions/{game_id}/competitors/{team_id}/leaders.
This wrapper reads the teams list for the game and fetches the
leaders resource for both teams, flattening the nested
categories -> leaders tree into one long frame: one row per
(team x category x leader). rank is the leader's position within the
category (1 = top performer). display_value is ESPN's pre-formatted
stat line (e.g. "18/25, 242 YDS, 5 TD").
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 both team-id columns – team_id gains team_name,
team_abbreviation, ..., and leader_team_id gains leader_team_name,
leader_team_abbreviation, .... A catalog failure degrades to NA
rather than erroring the wrapper. Set team_detail = FALSE to skip the
catalog fetch and the join.
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_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
# \donttest{
try(espn_cfb_game_team_leaders(game_id = 401628339))
#> ── Game team leaders data from ESPN ────────────────────────── cfbfastR 2.3.0 ──
#> ℹ Data updated: 2026-06-09 07:56:31 UTC
#> # A tibble: 193 × 35
#> game_id team_id team_name team_abbreviation team_location team_display_name
#> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 401628339 61 Bulldogs UGA Georgia Georgia Bulldogs
#> 2 401628339 61 Bulldogs UGA Georgia Georgia Bulldogs
#> 3 401628339 61 Bulldogs UGA Georgia Georgia Bulldogs
#> 4 401628339 61 Bulldogs UGA Georgia Georgia Bulldogs
#> 5 401628339 61 Bulldogs UGA Georgia Georgia Bulldogs
#> 6 401628339 61 Bulldogs UGA Georgia Georgia Bulldogs
#> 7 401628339 61 Bulldogs UGA Georgia Georgia Bulldogs
#> 8 401628339 61 Bulldogs UGA Georgia Georgia Bulldogs
#> 9 401628339 61 Bulldogs UGA Georgia Georgia Bulldogs
#> 10 401628339 61 Bulldogs UGA Georgia Georgia Bulldogs
#> # ℹ 183 more rows
#> # ℹ 29 more variables: team_short_display_name <chr>, team_nickname <chr>,
#> # team_color <chr>, team_alternate_color <chr>, team_logo_href <chr>,
#> # team_logo_dark_href <chr>, home_away <chr>, category_name <chr>,
#> # category_display <chr>, category_short_display <chr>,
#> # category_abbrev <chr>, rank <int>, athlete_id <chr>, leader_team_id <chr>,
#> # leader_team_name <chr>, leader_team_abbreviation <chr>, …
try(espn_cfb_game_team_leaders(game_id = 401628339,
team_detail = FALSE))
#> ── Game team leaders data from ESPN ────────────────────────── cfbfastR 2.3.0 ──
#> ℹ Data updated: 2026-06-09 07:56:31 UTC
#> # A tibble: 193 × 15
#> game_id team_id home_away category_name category_display
#> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 401628339 61 home passingLeader Passing Leader
#> 2 401628339 61 home passingLeader Passing Leader
#> 3 401628339 61 home rushingLeader Rushing Leader
#> 4 401628339 61 home rushingLeader Rushing Leader
#> 5 401628339 61 home rushingLeader Rushing Leader
#> 6 401628339 61 home rushingLeader Rushing Leader
#> 7 401628339 61 home rushingLeader Rushing Leader
#> 8 401628339 61 home rushingLeader Rushing Leader
#> 9 401628339 61 home rushingLeader Rushing Leader
#> 10 401628339 61 home receivingLeader Receiving Leader
#> # ℹ 183 more rows
#> # ℹ 10 more variables: category_short_display <chr>, category_abbrev <chr>,
#> # rank <int>, athlete_id <chr>, leader_team_id <chr>, value <dbl>,
#> # display_value <chr>, athlete_ref <chr>, leader_team_ref <chr>,
#> # statistics_ref <chr>
# }