NFL & NCAAF API

The Highlightly NFL & NCAAF API provides real time American football data including live scores, video highlights, game statistics, player profiles and stats, standings, predictions and live play by play events.

Coverage spans the NFL preseason, regular season, playoffs and championship games, plus NCAA FBS, so the same endpoints serve professional and college football.

Base URL

american-football.highlightly.net

Endpoints

19

Format

JSON only

Version

8.2.2

Also available with an All Sports API subscription at sports.highlightly.net/american-football. See base URLs.

Where to start

Read Authentication first, since every request needs an API key. Pagination and limits covers paging, rate limits and the plan object that describes your tier.

If you want	Start at
Touchdowns, sacks and game recaps	Highlights
Schedules, live scores and game detail	Matches
Conference and division tables	Standings
Per player passing, rushing and receiving	Box score

NFL and college in one API

Teams, matches, highlights, odds and standings filter by league, through league, leagueName or leagueType depending on the endpoint, and teams carry an abbreviation such as CIN. Standings conferences include AFC, NFC, SEC, ACC and BIG12. See standings for the full list.

Base URLs

NFL and NCAAF data is available two ways. An NFL & NCAAF API subscription covers the NFL and college football alone. An All Sports API subscription covers them and all other Highlightly sports under one key. Either one can be bought directly from Highlightly or through RapidAPI, which gives four base URLs.

Subscription	Platform	Base URL
NFL & NCAAF API	Highlightly	https://american-football.highlightly.net
NFL & NCAAF API	RapidAPI	https://nfl-ncaa-highlights-api.p.rapidapi.com
All Sports API	Highlightly	https://sports.highlightly.net/american-football
All Sports API	RapidAPI	https://sport-highlights-api.p.rapidapi.com/american-football

Every endpoint in this reference is available on all four. On Highlightly, one API key works for every product, and the data returned depends on your subscription to that product. On RapidAPI, each product is separate and needs its own API key.

To call an endpoint, append its path to your base URL. /matches becomes https://american-football.highlightly.net/matches with an NFL & NCAAF API subscription and https://sports.highlightly.net/american-football/matches with an All Sports API subscription. Parameters, responses and refresh intervals are the same on both, and every endpoint page shows both routes.

Your plan affects the data retrieved. On the Basic and Free plans highlights might have certain restrictions, and odds and geo restrictions are not available, with either subscription. See Pagination and limits.

What changes with an All Sports API subscription

The headers have the same names on every base URL. x-rapidapi-key is sent with every request, and x-rapidapi-host is sent only when calling through RapidAPI. What changes is the path and the host header, and on RapidAPI the key.

	NFL & NCAAF API	All Sports API
Path	/matches	/american-football/matches
x-rapidapi-key on Highlightly	Your Highlightly API key	Your Highlightly API key
x-rapidapi-key on RapidAPI	Your NFL & NCAAF API key	Your All Sports API key
x-rapidapi-host	nfl-ncaa-highlights-api.p.rapidapi.com	sport-highlights-api.p.rapidapi.com

On Highlightly, the same API key works on american-football.highlightly.net and sports.highlightly.net, and the data returned depends on your subscription to each product. On RapidAPI, the NFL & NCAAF API and the All Sports API are separate products, so each needs its own API key. One All Sports API quota covers every sport you call. See All Sports authentication.

Highlightly or RapidAPI

Both platforms give you analytics, billing settings and key management. RapidAPI does not offer custom plans or long term plan discounts.

Create an account at Highlightly or through RapidAPI. Plans and limits are listed on the NFL API page and the All Sports API page.

OpenAPI specification

Import the OpenAPI 3.0 document into Postman or Insomnia, or generate a client from it.

Download docs.json

Support

For feature requests, questions, private plans or business enquiries, contact [email protected]. You can also start a discussion or send a private message through RapidAPI.