lenwood/cfbd-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:
1. Washington was an FBS team from the Pac-12 conference
2. The game was played at Washington's home stadium (Husky Stadium)
3. Eastern Washington's win probability was only 1.4% according to the post-game stats
4. The 59 points Eastern Washington scored was the most ever by an FCS team against a Pac-12 opponent
5. 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:
1. Clone this repository:
2. Create and activate a virtual environment:
3. Install dependencies:
4. Create a .env file in the project root and add your API key:
Manual Installation
1. Clone this repository:
2. Create and activate a virtual environment:
3. Install dependencies:
4. Create a .env file in the project root and add your API key:
Usage
Running the Server
Start the server:
Connecting with Claude Desktop
1. Open your Claude Desktop configuration at:
- macOS: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json
- Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
2. Add the server configuration:
3. 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