Get the game-day roster for both teams in a single college football game, including each player's jersey number, starter flag, and active/did-not-play status.
Arguments
- game_id
(Integer required): ESPN game identifier.
- position_detail
(Logical): when
TRUE(default), fetch the ESPN position catalog once and join it ontoposition_id, appending the fiveposition_*detail columns shown in the Value table. A catalog failure degrades toNArather than erroring the wrapper. SetFALSEto skip the extra fetch and return the original column set.- team_detail
(Logical): when
TRUE(default), fetch the ESPN team catalog (espn_cfb_teams()) once and join friendly team fields next to theteam_idcolumn –team_name,team_abbreviation,team_location,team_display_name,team_short_display_name,team_nickname,team_color,team_alternate_color,team_logo_href, andteam_logo_dark_href, inserted immediately afterteam_id. A catalog failure degrades toNArather than erroring the wrapper. SetFALSEto skip the catalog fetch and the join.
Value
A data frame with one row per rostered player:
| 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. |
| athlete_id | character | ESPN athlete id (parsed from athlete_ref). |
| player_id | character | ESPN player id from the roster entry. |
| display_name | character | Player display name as shown by ESPN. |
| jersey | character | Jersey number. |
| position_id | character | ESPN position id (parsed from position_ref). |
| period | integer | Period the player entered the game (0 if none). |
| starter | logical | TRUE if the player started the game. |
| active | logical | TRUE if the player was active for the game. |
| did_not_play | logical | TRUE if the player did not play. |
| valid | logical | TRUE if the roster entry is flagged valid by ESPN. |
| athlete_ref | character | $ref URL to the athlete-in-season resource. |
| position_ref | character | $ref URL to the position resource. |
| 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. |
Details
Wraps the ESPN core-v2 endpoint
events/{game_id}/competitions/{game_id}/competitors/{team_id}/roster.
This wrapper reads the teams list for the game and fetches the
roster resource for both teams, stacking the entries arrays into
one long frame – one row per (team x rostered player). home_away
identifies which team a row belongs to. Players are returned as ESPN
athlete ids; join to another athlete source for names.
When position_detail = TRUE (the default) the ESPN position catalog
(espn_cfb_positions()) is fetched once and joined onto position_id,
so the output carries the full position name / abbreviation rather than
the bare id (see Details).
When position_detail = TRUE (the default), five columns are appended
by joining the ESPN position catalog (espn_cfb_positions()) on
position_id: position_name, position_display_name,
position_abbreviation, position_leaf, and position_parent_id.
The catalog is fetched once per call. A roster entry whose
position_id is missing or unmatched receives NA for all five, and a
catalog-fetch failure degrades the whole set to NA rather than
erroring the wrapper. With position_detail = FALSE the five columns
are omitted and the original roster schema is returned unchanged.
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_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_roster(game_id = 401628339))
#> ── Game team roster data from ESPN ─────────────────────────── cfbfastR 2.3.0 ──
#> ℹ Data updated: 2026-06-09 07:56:34 UTC
#> # A tibble: 242 × 30
#> 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 232 more rows
#> # ℹ 24 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>, athlete_id <chr>,
#> # player_id <chr>, display_name <chr>, jersey <chr>, position_id <chr>,
#> # period <int>, starter <lgl>, active <lgl>, did_not_play <lgl>, valid <lgl>,
#> # athlete_ref <chr>, position_ref <chr>, position_name <chr>, …
try(espn_cfb_game_team_roster(game_id = 401628339,
position_detail = FALSE))
#> ── Game team roster data from ESPN ─────────────────────────── cfbfastR 2.3.0 ──
#> ℹ Data updated: 2026-06-09 07:56:34 UTC
#> # A tibble: 242 × 25
#> 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 232 more rows
#> # ℹ 19 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>, athlete_id <chr>,
#> # player_id <chr>, display_name <chr>, jersey <chr>, position_id <chr>,
#> # period <int>, starter <lgl>, active <lgl>, did_not_play <lgl>, valid <lgl>,
#> # athlete_ref <chr>, position_ref <chr>
try(espn_cfb_game_team_roster(game_id = 401628339,
team_detail = FALSE))
#> ── Game team roster data from ESPN ─────────────────────────── cfbfastR 2.3.0 ──
#> ℹ Data updated: 2026-06-09 07:56:34 UTC
#> # A tibble: 242 × 20
#> game_id team_id home_away athlete_id player_id display_name jersey
#> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr> <chr>
#> 1 401628339 61 home 4369935 4369935 I. Reeves 37
#> 2 401628339 61 home 4427080 4427080 X. Truss 73
#> 3 401628339 61 home 4429035 4429035 T. Ratledge 69
#> 4 401628339 61 home 4429105 4429105 A. Smith 11
#> 5 401628339 61 home 4429136 4429136 W. Brinson 97
#> 6 401628339 61 home 4429142 4429142 N. Stackhouse 78
#> 7 401628339 61 home 4429736 4429736 C. Ham 95
#> 8 401628339 61 home 4430841 4430841 C. Beck 15
#> 9 401628339 61 home 4431520 4431520 C. Chambliss 32
#> 10 401628339 61 home 4431573 4431573 S. Mondon Jr. 2
#> # ℹ 232 more rows
#> # ℹ 13 more variables: position_id <chr>, period <int>, starter <lgl>,
#> # active <lgl>, did_not_play <lgl>, valid <lgl>, athlete_ref <chr>,
#> # position_ref <chr>, position_name <chr>, position_display_name <chr>,
#> # position_abbreviation <chr>, position_leaf <lgl>, position_parent_id <chr>
# }