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Comparison · Analytics
cfbfastr vs STACAS
A side-by-side editorial comparison of cfbfastr and STACAS — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:r-package
cfbfastr vs STACAS: at a glance
What is cfbfastr?
College football's open data client hit v2 — and now reports how many API calls you have left.
cfbfastR retrieves college football data — play-by-play, box scores, betting lines, ratings and recruiting — from the CollegeFootballData API, ESPN endpoints and the sportsdataverse data repository. Version 2.0.0 in September 2025 was the first release in over three years and rebuilt the package against CFBD's v2 API. Every load_cfb_*() function changed its underlying source to comply with CFBD's terms, the play-by-play dataset gained team and game identifiers users previously had to join in themselves, and a batch of new endpoints arrived covering opponent-adjusted metrics, FPI ratings and live scoreboard and play data.
What is STACAS?
Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
STACAS integrates single-cell RNA-seq datasets by finding and weighting anchors between them, with rPCA-distance-based downweighting and an optional semi-supervised mode that uses cell type labels to discard inconsistent anchors. IntegrateData.STACAS() performs the integration natively rather than handing off, and StandardizeGeneSymbols() normalises gene naming across datasets before anchors are computed.
cfbfastr vs STACAS: editorial side-by-side
cfbfastr
0.0ANALYTICS
College football's open data client hit v2 — and now reports how many API calls you have left.
◆ Current state
cfbfastR retrieves college football data — play-by-play, box scores, betting lines, ratings and recruiting — from the CollegeFootballData API, ESPN endpoints and the sportsdataverse data repository. Version 2.0.0 in September 2025 was the first release in over three years and rebuilt the package against CFBD's v2 API. Every load_cfb_*() function changed its underlying source to comply with CFBD's terms, the play-by-play dataset gained team and game identifiers users previously had to join in themselves, and a batch of new endpoints arrived covering opponent-adjusted metrics, FPI ratings and live scoreboard and play data.
◆ Where it's heading
The package's direction is now set by the data provider rather than by its own plans, and that provider has moved to metered access — the free tier is capped at 1,000 calls a month, with limits tied to membership level. cfbd_api_key_info() reporting a user's tier and usage is the clearest sign of that shift: quota is now something an analysis has to manage. The long gap before 2.0.0 and its arrival largely through a first-time contributor also indicate a package sustained by community effort rather than steady maintenance.
◆ Prediction
The live scoreboard and play endpoints are the natural place for the next work, since they are the ones that benefit from in-season iteration. Given the release notes warn users to check their pipelines, follow-up fixes for the changed loading functions are likely before anything new lands.
STACAS
0.0ANALYTICS
Single-cell batch correction that learned to use cell labels, then spent three releases chasing Seurat.
◆ Current state
STACAS integrates single-cell RNA-seq datasets by finding and weighting anchors between them, with rPCA-distance-based downweighting and an optional semi-supervised mode that uses cell type labels to discard inconsistent anchors. IntegrateData.STACAS() performs the integration natively rather than handing off, and StandardizeGeneSymbols() normalises gene naming across datasets before anchors are computed.
◆ Where it's heading
The method work concentrated in version 2.0 and has been stable since; everything after is Seurat compatibility and operational robustness. Versions 2.1.1 through 2.3.0 track Seurat v5 assays, v3-to-v5 conversion, multi-layer objects and SCT normalisation, with the genuinely useful additions — a reference seed dataset, max.seed.datasets for large-scale integration, min.sample.size — arriving as side effects of that work. The package is from the same lab as GeneNMF, and its release rhythm follows the single-cell ecosystem's upstream churn rather than an internal roadmap.
◆ Prediction
Expect the next release to follow further Seurat object-model changes, which have driven the last three. Nothing in the entries indicates new anchor-scoring or correction methodology in progress.
Alternatives to cfbfastr and STACAS
Other Analytics products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either cfbfastr or STACAS.
kde1d
A univariate density estimator that added zero-inflated data and reopened its C++ API to do it.
svines
Stationary vine copulas for time series, released in lockstep with the rest of Nagler's vine stack.
gghighlight
A single-purpose ggplot2 extension that has spent six years tracking ggplot2 instead of growing.
rtrek
A Star Trek data package that became a Memory Alpha web client and has been patching scrapers ever since.
eiaapi
A thin EIA energy-data client whose whole story is making bulk queries survive the API's limits.
See all cfbfastr alternatives → · See all STACAS alternatives →
Recent activity from cfbfastr and STACAS
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 11mo agocfbfastrRebuilt on CFBD API v2 with metered access and live endpoints ⚡
- 1y agoSTACASMulti-layer objects and Seurat v3-to-v5 conversion handled
- 2y agoSTACASscale.data option for extreme batch effects; gene name conversion table
- 3y agoSTACASReference seeding, gene symbol standardisation, large-scale integration path
- 4y agoSTACASSemi-supervised integration and rPCA anchor downweighting ⚡
- 4y agocfbfastrESPN endpoints and repo-backed loaders added
- 4y agocfbfastrAll outputs standardised as tibbles with a custom class
- 4y agocfbfastrCRAN release with option-restoring cleanup
- 4y agocfbfastrMinor fixes to betting and FPI rating functions
- 4y agocfbfastrESPN scoreboard and play-by-play access, with argument cleanup
- 5y agoSTACASSeurat 4.0.0 compatibility and SCTransform support
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between cfbfastr and STACAS?
Both compete on the same themes — r-package — within Analytics. cfbfastr and STACAS are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is cfbfastr better than STACAS?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. cfbfastr and STACAS are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 0.0 vs 0.0, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other Analytics products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to cfbfastr?
Top cfbfastr alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "cfbfastr alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/cfbfastr for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to STACAS?
Top STACAS alternatives in Analytics are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "STACAS alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/stacas for the full list with editorial commentary on each.