College Football Data MCP Server

An MCP server implementation providing access to college football statistics sourced from the College Football Data API V2 within Claude Desktop.

Overview

This Model Context Protocol (MCP) server enables AI assistants and applications to:

Query comprehensive college football statistics and data
Access game results, team records, and player statistics
Analyze play-by-play data and drive summaries
View rankings and win probability metrics
Compare team performances and generate insights

Users can run queries using natural language.

Sample output

Q. What was the largest upset among FCS games during the 2014 season?

A. Let me help find the biggest FCS upset from 2014. I'll look through the games data, focusing on games between FCS teams where there was a significant gap in team strength and an unexpected outcome.

The data suggests there were several notable upsets in FCS during 2014, but one that stands out was Eastern Washington defeating Washington 52-59 on September 6th, 2014. This was particularly significant because:

Washington was an FBS team from the Pac-12 conference
The game was played at Washington's home stadium (Husky Stadium)
Eastern Washington's win probability was only 1.4% according to the post-game stats
The 59 points Eastern Washington scored was the most ever by an FCS team against a Pac-12 opponent
Washington had been favored by multiple scores going into the game

Other notable FCS upsets from that season included:

North Dakota State defeating Iowa State 34-14
Bethune-Cookman defeating FIU 14-12
Northern Iowa nearly upsetting Iowa (lost 31-23)

However, Eastern Washington over Washington appears to be the largest upset of the 2014 FCS season when considering:

The difference in divisions (FCS vs FBS)
The caliber of the FBS opponent (Power 5 conference)
The scoring margin and offensive performance by the underdog
The historical significance as one of the highest-scoring FCS wins over a Power 5 team
The fact it happened on the road in a hostile environment

Prerequisites

Python 3.11 or higher
UV package manager (recommended)
A College Football Data API key (get one here)

Installation

Installing via Smithery

To install College Football Data Server for Claude Desktop automatically via Smithery:

npx -y @smithery/cli install cfbd --client claude

Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/cfbd-mcp-server
cd cfbd-mcp-server

Create and activate a virtual environment:

uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

Install dependencies:

uv pip install -e .

Create a .env file in the project root and add your API key:

CFB_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Manual Installation

Clone this repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/cfbd-mcp-server
cd cfbd-mcp-server

Create and activate a virtual environment:

uv venv
source .venv/bin/activate  # On Windows: .venv\Scripts\activate

Install dependencies:

uv pip install -e .

Create a .env file in the project root and add your API key:

CFB_API_KEY=your_api_key_here

Usage

Running the Server

Start the server:

uv run cfbd-mcp-server

Connecting with Claude Desktop

Open your Claude Desktop configuration at:
- macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
- Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
Add the server configuration:

{
    "mcpServers": {
        "cfbd-mcp-server": {
            "command": "uv",
            "args": [
                "--directory",
                "/full/path/to/cfbd-mcp-server",
                "run",
                "cfbd-mcp-server"
            ],
            "env": {
                "CFB_API_KEY": "xxx",
                "PATH": "/full/path/to/python"
            }
        }
    }
}

Close then restart Claude Desktop

Once you restart you can confirm the installation by clicking on the plus sign in the lower left corner of the text box. If successful you'll see "Add from cfbd-mcp-server" as one of the menu options. Here's an example screenshot.

Updating after install

Download the updated files

cd cfbd-mcp-server
git pull

Uninstall the existing package:

uv pip uninstall cfbd-mcp-server

Delete existing build artifacts and metadata

For Windows:

rmdir /s /q build dist
del /s /q *.egg-info

For macOS:

rm -rf build dist *.egg-info

Install the revised package and its dependencies

uv pip install -e .
uv sync --dev --all-extras

uv run cfbd-mcp-server

Close and restart Claude Desktop

Features

Resources

Access schema documentation for all endpoints:

schema://games - Game information and scores
schema://records - Team season records
schema://games/teams - Detailed team game data
schema://plays - Play-by-play information
schema://drives - Drive summaries and results
schema://play/stats - Individual play statistics
schema://rankings - Team rankings across polls
schema://metrics/wp/pregame - Pregame win probabilities
schema://game/box/advanced - Advanced box score statistics

Tools

Query endpoints directly:

get-games - Retrieve game data
get-records - Get team records
get-games-teams - Access team game statistics
get-plays - Query play-by-play data
get-drives - Analyze drive information
get-play-stats - View play statistics
get-rankings - Check team rankings
get-pregame-win-probability - See win probabilities
get-advanced-box-score - Access detailed game statistics and analytics

Prompts

Pre-built analysis templates:

analyze-game - Get detailed analysis of a specific game
analyze-team - Comprehensive single team analysis
analyze-trends - Analyze trends over a season
compare-teams - Compare performance of two teams
analyze-rivalry - Analyze historical rivalry matchups

API Limits

The College Football Data API is free to use but has rate limiting:

Free tier: Limited requests per minute
CFBD Patreon subscribers get higher rate limits
Use efficient querying patterns to avoid hitting limits
Handle rate limit errors gracefully

Development

Project Structure

cfbd-mcp-server/
├── README.md
├── pyproject.toml
└── src/
    └── cfbd_mcp_server/
        ├── .env
        ├── __init__.py
        ├── cfbd_schema.py
        ├── schema_helpers.py
        └── server.py

Setting Up for Development

Clone the repository
Install development dependencies:

uv pip install -e ".[dev]"

Run tests:

pytest

Contributing

Fork the repository
Create a feature branch
Commit your changes
Push to your fork
Submit a pull request

Troubleshooting

Common Issues

API Key Errors
- Verify your API key is correctly set in both the .env and claude_desktop_config.json files
- Check the key is valid at collegefootballdata.com
Rate Limiting
- Space out requests when possible
- Consider Patreon subscription for higher limits
- Implement caching for frequently accessed data
Connection Issues
- Verify internet connectivity
- Check API status at collegefootballdata.com
- Ensure proper error handling in your code

Getting Help

Open an issue on GitHub
Review the API documentation
Check the College Football Data Discord

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License - see the LICENSE file for details.

Acknowledgments

College Football Data for providing the API
Model Context Protocol for the MCP specification

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