About CollegeAthleteInsider
An independent, one-analyst site that covers college football and basketball the way I wish more outlets did: with the actual numbers, shown honestly, sourced openly, and explained in plain English.
I'm an independent analyst who has spent years reading box scores, play-by-play files, and rulebooks so you don't have to. I'm not affiliated with the NCAA, any conference, any school, or any data vendor. This site is a personal project: original analysis built from public data, written for fans who want more than a hot take and for athletes and families who want a straight answer.
The premise is simple. College sports are awash in numbers, but most of those numbers are either presented without context or locked behind paywalls. You can do a surprising amount with free, public data and a little arithmetic. Everything you read here is built that way, and I show my work.
Methodology and data sources
Every statistic on this site traces to a specific, reproducible data pull. Each data-driven article has a companion Python script in the project's /scripts folder; if you re-run it, you get the same table or chart I did. I cap that practice with one rule I never break: if a data pull fails, I leave a clearly marked to-do note and the working script rather than inventing a number. You will never find a fabricated statistic here.
The sources I lean on, all public:
- CollegeFootballData.com — a free, community-run API (a free key required) for college football schedules, results, and advanced ratings such as SP+.
- sportsdataverse — the open-source
hoopR(men's) andwehoop(women's) data for college basketball, derived from public sources. - ESPN's public endpoints — schedules, scores, and box scores used for worked examples and trends.
- NCAA.org and NCAA.com — official records, rules, and the NET ranking.
- Bart Torvik's T-Rank — a free, public college-basketball ratings site I reference for context.
What I won't do
I don't reproduce proprietary, paywalled, or licensed datasets. That means no KenPom tables, and no recruiting rankings or NIL valuation figures from services like 247Sports, Rivals, or On3. Where those services are relevant, I'll mention them in prose and link to them — but I build my analysis only from genuinely public data. I also keep the focus on college athletes, teams, and programs; I don't profile or rank individual high-school recruits, who are minors.
And there's no betting content here — no picks, no odds, no sportsbook talk. This is analysis, not a tout sheet.
A note for athletes and families
Some of what I cover — NIL, revenue sharing, the transfer portal, roster limits — directly affects athletes' lives. I try to explain those topics clearly and without hype. But nothing here is legal, financial, or eligibility advice. The rules change fast and vary by school and state. For your specific situation, talk to your school's compliance office. Please read the full disclaimer.
Get in touch
Corrections, questions, and good-faith arguments are all welcome. Reach me at contact@collegeathleteinsider.com or via the contact page. If you think a number here is wrong, tell me — and point me to the data. I'll fix it or explain it.