ESPN CFB Ticker — Flarum 2 Extension

A live FBS college football scores ticker for Flarum 2 forums, powered by the free public ESPN API. Scores scroll automatically across a sticky banner at the top (or bottom) of your forum, updating on a configurable interval.

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Features

• 🏈 FBS-only — filters ESPN's API to Group 80 (NCAA Division I FBS)
• 📡 Live scores with a pulsing green dot for in-progress games
• 🏆 AP/Coaches rankings — shows #N next to ranked teams (Top 25)
• 🖼️ Team logos pulled directly from ESPN's CDN
• ⚙️ Admin settings — toggle on/off, top/bottom position, refresh interval, scroll speed
• 📱 Responsive — logos hidden on narrow screens to keep ticker readable
• 🔁 Seamless loop — CSS-only marquee with no layout jank
• ♻️ Auto-refresh — polls ESPN API on a configurable interval (default 60s)

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Requirements

• Flarum ^2.0
• PHP ^8.3
• No external PHP dependencies

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Installation

composer require ernestdefoe/espn-cfb-ticker

Then enable the extension in your Flarum admin panel under Extensions.

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Building JavaScript

If you're contributing or modifying the extension:

cd js
npm install
npm run build   # production build
npm run dev     # watch mode

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Admin Settings

Setting	Default	Description
Enable Ticker	true	Show/hide the ticker sitewide
Position	top	Sticky top or fixed bottom
Refresh Interval	60 seconds	How often to poll ESPN API (min 15s)
Scroll Speed	40	Per-game animation multiplier (lower = faster)

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How It Works

1. On page load the extension mounts a Mithril component outside Flarum's main app node.
2. The component fetch()es https://site.api.espn.com/apis/site/v2/sports/football/college-football/scoreboard?groups=80&limit=50 — the public ESPN API, no key required.
3. Games are rendered in a CSS @keyframes scroll animation. The track is duplicated so the loop is seamless.
4. A setInterval re-fetches on the configured interval, causing a Mithril redraw.

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ESPN API Notes

The ESPN public scoreboard API (site.api.espn.com) is unofficial and undocumented but has been widely used by developers for years. It requires no API key and returns JSON. The groups=80 parameter restricts results to FBS schools.

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Support

Questions, bug reports, and feature requests:

• Support forum: https://ernestdefoe.online
• Issues: https://github.com/ernestdefoe/espn-cfb-ticker/issues

License

MIT © 2026 ernestdefoe