chore: prepare the 3.8.5 release (#790 )

* chore: prepare the 3.8.5 release Bumps src.__version__ to 3.8.5 and turns Unreleased into ## 3.8.5: src.common.sports_rankings (#789, sports family 8), which the scoreboards adopt by flooring on 3.8.5, and #754's settled-day chunk memory, which had no CHANGELOG entry and gets one from its commit message. src/common/README.md and docs/SPORTS_UNIFICATION.md say 3.8.5 for the module. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> * docs(sports): family 8's heading says core 3.8.5, not awaiting release Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com> --------- Co-authored-by: Claude Opus 5.5 <noreply@anthropic.com>
feat(common): sports_rankings -- the reconciled rankings (sports family 8) (#789 )
2026-10-12 18:16:35 +00:00 · 2026-10-12 12:57:12 -04:00 · 2026-10-12 12:23:58 -04:00 · 2026-10-09 15:05:24 -04:00
10 changed files with 1046 additions and 24 deletions
@@ -19,6 +19,37 @@ accepts both, but the store flags the old spelling as deprecated

 ## Unreleased

+## 3.8.5
+
+Fewer ESPN requests on the hourly schedule refresh (#754), and sports
+consolidation family 8: `src.common.sports_rankings`, which the scoreboards
+adopt by flooring on 3.8.5 (#789).
+
+### ESPN: settled days are not fetched again
+
+- A scoreboard's hourly Recent/Upcoming refresh asks ESPN for its window one
+  day at a time, and most of those days can no longer change. A chunk whose
+  last day is three or more days back is now kept in memory for 24 hours
+  (compressed, at most 512 entries / 8 MB) and answered from there, for
+  `fetch_espn_scoreboard` and the background service alike. Failed and
+  capped chunks are never kept, and each hit is parsed afresh. Against live
+  ESPN, a second refresh of five scoreboard windows went from 111 requests
+  and 10.2 MB to 50 requests and 3.2 MB with identical events. (#754)
+
+### New modules
+
+- `src/common/sports_rankings.py` -- sports consolidation family 8, once the
+  plugins made `_fetch_team_rankings`, `_choose_poll` (three bodies each),
+  `_load_division_team_ids`, `_passes_other_filters`, `_best_rank` and
+  `_is_ranked_game` (two each) one each: `SportsRankingsMixin` (`SportsCore`),
+  with `_ranked_positions` and `_poll_season_ended` beside them, and
+  `choose_top_division_poll()` for the dynamic team resolvers. Ranks are kept
+  by ESPN team id as well as abbreviation and a game with ids is ranked by id;
+  a poll from a season that has ended (its `endDate` has passed) loads
+  nothing, so no rank badge shows between seasons; the college football
+  division rosters are asked for the season year. A plugin may inherit the
+  mixin once it floors on 3.8.5, and deletes its copies then. (#789)
+
 ## 3.8.4

 A panel that cannot reach its refresh cap is reported with a cap it can hold
@@ -94,6 +94,7 @@ more. Shared sports code lives in `src/common`:
 | `sports_game_over.py` | 3.8.1 | `SportsGameOverMixin` — `_is_game_really_over`, with the `FINAL_PERIOD` seam (family 5) |
 | `sports_favorites.py` | 3.8.2 | `SportsFavoritesMixin`, `SportsUpcomingFavoritesMixin`, `SportsRecentFavoritesMixin` — `_is_favorite_game` and the favourites-only picks, on the `_favorite_key` seam (family 6) |
 | `sports_rotation.py` | 3.8.4 | `SportsRotationMixin` — the other-games rotation (importance order, the window, odds on rotated-in games), on the `_rankings_loaded` seam (family 7) |
+| `sports_rankings.py` | 3.8.5 | `SportsRankingsMixin` — which teams are ranked (by id and abbreviation), the poll choice, stale polls hidden, the "ranked" filter; `choose_top_division_poll()` (family 8) |

 Each is described in [src/common/README.md](../src/common/README.md).

@@ -350,7 +351,7 @@ compare abbreviations exactly, and
 abbreviation (or by `_team_in` where a plugin has one) instead of through
 `_favorite_key`. The result-colour helpers also wait (decision above).

-### Family 7: the other-games rotation (core done; adoption waits for a release)
+### Family 7: the other-games rotation (done: core 3.8.4, adopted)

 ledmatrix-plugins `scripts/test_other_games_rotation.py` (#640) pinned 96 rows
 across the nine plugins first: `_by_importance` per rankings table, core's
@@ -380,7 +381,39 @@ builds the pools, so nothing rotates on a board with no favourites; football
 routes it through `_favorites_first(games, 0, N)` (decision below, family 13).
 ufc's MMA managers override `update()` and never build the pools, so the
 rotation is dormant there. `_best_rank`, `_is_ranked_game` and
-`_passes_other_filters` are family 8.
+`_passes_other_filters` were family 8.
+
+### Family 8: rankings (reconciled; promoted, core 3.8.5)
+
+ledmatrix-plugins `scripts/test_rankings.py` (#644) pinned 79 rows across the
+nine plugins first, every ESPN request answered offline from recorded-shape
+payloads: which endpoints `_fetch_team_rankings` asks per league and the
+tables it keeps, `_choose_poll` over nine poll sets, the division rosters'
+season year across six dates, the rankings and roster caches, a poll from a
+finished season, malformed payloads, and `_is_ranked_game`, `_best_rank` and
+`_passes_other_filters` over games whose abbreviations collide. The reconcile
+(ledmatrix-plugins #645) made `_fetch_team_rankings`,
+`_choose_poll` (three bodies each), `_load_division_team_ids`,
+`_passes_other_filters`, `_best_rank` and `_is_ranked_game` (two each) one
+body each on `SportsCore`, with football's `_ranked_positions` and a new
+`_poll_season_ended` beside them, and dropped baseball's per-league
+class-level rankings copy. Every changed cell is one of the decisions below:
+the id table in all nine (and the games it re-ranks), /rankings first for
+every college or NCAA league in afl, basketball, nrl and soccer, the season
+year in the eight that asked for the calendar year, the stale-poll rows, and
+baseball's shared copy. The harness renders were byte-identical.
+`src/common/sports_rankings.py` holds the bodies in one mixin,
+`SportsRankingsMixin`, plus `choose_top_division_poll()` for the dynamic team
+resolvers; `test/test_sports_rankings_parity.py` compares them, and the
+constants, with the plugin copies.
+
+Left for later families: the rank badge (switch scorebug, scroll card and the
+plugins' `manager.py`, families 11, 12 and 14) still reads the abbreviation
+table; `manager.py`'s `_get_rankings_cache` merges every league's table for
+the scroll cards. `_rankings_loaded` stays the family 7 seam (football counts
+its id table too); the two differ only for a poll whose blocks carry ids and
+no abbreviations. The data sources' `fetch_standings` (held with
+`data_sources.py`) is still four bodies; only its endpoint order changed.

 ### Why the method changes

@@ -468,8 +501,8 @@ release.
 | 4 | Identical sweep | `manager.py`: `_dispatch_switch_refresh`, `_favorite_team_is_live`, `get_vegas_priority_weight`, `_game_involves`, `_favorite_scan_targets`, `_favorite_scan_games`, `_get_total_games_for_manager` (all nine, 1); the live-scroll helpers `_preserving_scroll_position`, `_refresh_live_scroll_managers`, `_live_scroll_managers`, `_note_live_scroll_built`, `_live_scroll_needs_rebuild`, `_live_scroll_fields` (eight, 1). `sports.py`: `_card_option`, `_filtered_or_all`, `_effective_live_duration`, `_recent_date_text` (eight, 1). 58 identical families in all | Nothing to decide; brings `manager.py` into core as a `SportsPluginHostMixin`. `_resolve_font_path` (identical in nine `sports.py` and eight renderers) becomes `sports_font_path.resolve_font_path`, not `font_layout.resolve_asset_path`, which skips the cwd. Done: core 3.8.0, adopted (ledmatrix-plugins #594); see [Stage 4](#stage-4-the-identical-sweep-done-core-380-adopted) |
 | 5 | Game-over check | `SportsLive._is_game_really_over` (5) | Pure logic, no pixels; one seam, `FINAL_PERIOD`. The pilot for the procedure. Reconciled to one body and promoted as `sports_game_over`; shipped in 3.8.1 and adopted. See [Family 5](#family-5-the-game-over-check-done-core-381-adopted) |
 | 6 | Favourite matching | `_is_favorite_game` (7 across three classes), `_select_games_for_display` (2: nrl), `_select_recent_games_for_display` (3) | Everything that asks "is this a favourite" goes through the 3.5.0 `_favorite_key` seam. Reconciled to one body each and promoted as `sports_favorites`; shipped in 3.8.2 and adopted. See [Family 6](#family-6-favourite-matching-done-core-382-adopted) |
-| 7 | Other-games rotation | `_by_importance`, `_other_games_window`, `_advance_other_games_if_due` (2 each: football), `_rotate_other_games_on_display` (2: ufc), with `_attach_odds_to_rotated_games` (3; ufc had none) | One outlier each; football carried two fixes the other eight lacked. Reconciled to one body each, on a `_rankings_loaded` seam, and promoted as `sports_rotation`; adoption waits for the release that ships it. See [Family 7](#family-7-the-other-games-rotation-core-done-adoption-waits-for-a-release) |
-| 8 | Rankings | `_fetch_team_rankings` (3), `_choose_poll` (3), `_load_division_team_ids`, `_passes_other_filters`, `_best_rank`, `_is_ranked_game` (2 each: football) | Needs 7; the rank badge and the "ranked only" filter read it |
+| 7 | Other-games rotation | `_by_importance`, `_other_games_window`, `_advance_other_games_if_due` (2 each: football), `_rotate_other_games_on_display` (2: ufc), with `_attach_odds_to_rotated_games` (3; ufc had none) | One outlier each; football carried two fixes the other eight lacked. Reconciled to one body each, on a `_rankings_loaded` seam, and promoted as `sports_rotation`; done: core 3.8.4, adopted (ledmatrix-plugins #643). See [Family 7](#family-7-the-other-games-rotation-done-core-384-adopted) |
+| 8 | Rankings | `_fetch_team_rankings` (3), `_choose_poll` (3), `_load_division_team_ids`, `_passes_other_filters`, `_best_rank`, `_is_ranked_game` (2 each: football) | Needs 7; the rank badge and the "ranked only" filter read it. Reconciled to one body each and promoted as `sports_rankings` (core 3.8.5). See [Family 8](#family-8-rankings-reconciled-promoted-core-385) |
 | 9 | Live fetch and odds | `_fetch_todays_games` (5), `_fetch_odds` (3), `_attach_odds_to_rotated_games` (3) | The prerequisite for one shared ESPN poller across plugins |
 | 10 | View model | `_extract_game_details_common` (9 of 9) | Every renderer reads it; its keys are additive-only, so reconcile to the superset and leave sport extras in `_extract_game_details` |
 | 11 | Switch scorebug | `_load_fonts` (4), `_load_custom_font_from_element_config` (6), `_get_layout_offset` (5), `_fit_score_font` (2: football), `_load_and_resize_logo` (9), `_draw_dynamic_odds` (9), then `_draw_scorebug_layout` (20: Upcoming 9, Recent 8, Live 2, ufc's Core 1) | Needs 10 and the twin decisions below. Several releases: fonts and offsets, logos, odds, then one mode's layout per release |
@@ -537,18 +570,34 @@ suspected behaviour that needs a payload or a rig to confirm first.
  non-empty; football counts its by-id table too). Kept for family 13: the
  no-favourites branch of `update()` keeps its fixed "next N" in the eight
  plugins that have it, rather than football's rotating pools.
- **8, rankings.** (a) afl, basketball, nrl and soccer turn a *standings*
-  payload into ranks (a pro league's standings position becomes the rank
-  badge); baseball, hockey, lacrosse, ufc and football do not. Which is
-  right is visible on every pro-league card with "show ranking" on.
-  (b) football also keys ranks by team id, so two schools sharing an
-  abbreviation across divisions cannot be confused: adopt for all.
-  (c) football asks for the division roster of the *season* year (July
-  onward is this year's season), which is right for football and wrong for
-  college basketball, hockey and lacrosse, whose ESPN season is the year it
-  ends: a per-sport seam, not football's constant. (d) baseball's
-  `_choose_poll` calls `dynamic_team_resolver.choose_top_division_poll`, the
-  others inline it: one home, in core.
+- **8, rankings. Decided 2026-10-12, reconciled.** Measured first, two of
+  the questions as first written did not hold. (a) afl, basketball, nrl and
+  soccer could turn a *standings* payload into ranks, but the branch never
+  ran: rankings are fetched only where `_league_has_rankings()` (a college or
+  NCAA league), and ESPN's site-API /standings answers `{}` or a link stub,
+  never a table. Deleted. The same four data sources asked /standings first
+  for any college league outside a fixed list, so a custom NCAA soccer
+  league (`usa.ncaa.m.1`) never showed its coaches poll; every college or
+  NCAA league now asks /rankings first, as in the other five (fix, visible
+  only there). (b) Ranks are kept by ESPN team id too, in all nine, and a
+  game with ids is ranked by id: ESPN lists Ohio State and Ohio State Newark
+  both as OSU. Changes the "ranked" filter and the other-games order only
+  where abbreviations collide; the badge still reads the abbreviation table.
+  (c) Only college football has division rosters (all nine carry the same
+  one-league table; college basketball, hockey and lacrosse publish none), so
+  football's July rule is promoted as is and there is no seam. In the other
+  eight the calendar year was unreachable. (d) One poll rule, in core:
+  `_choose_poll`, with `choose_top_division_poll()` for the resolvers that
+  expand `AP_TOP_n` (baseball's helper and the others' inline copies call it
+  once they adopt). (e) A poll from a season that has ended loads nothing:
+  ESPN keeps serving the last poll between seasons (on 2026-10-12, college
+  basketball's April final and college lacrosse's May poll), and each block
+  carries its season's `endDate`, so no calendar and no per-sport seam. No
+  badge shows and the "ranked" filter fails open until the new season's
+  first poll; visible on college basketball and lacrosse boards between
+  seasons. A block without a readable `endDate` counts as current. (f)
+  baseball's MLB, MiLB and NCAA Baseball managers drop their class-level
+  shared copy of the table (none of those leagues publishes a poll).
 - **9, live fetch and odds.** (a) afl, basketball, nrl and soccer cache the
  live scoreboard for 30 s under `<sport_key>_scoreboard_current`; the others
  do not (the harness fixtures seed that key, so the change shows up there).
@@ -41,6 +41,7 @@ src/common/sports_font_path.py
 src/common/sports_game_over.py
 src/common/sports_live_scroll.py
 src/common/sports_plugin_host.py
+src/common/sports_rankings.py
 src/common/sports_rotation.py
 src/common/sports_scroll.py
 src/common/sports_timezone.py
@@ -4,5 +4,5 @@ LEDMatrix Display System
 Core source package for the LED Matrix Display project.
 """

-__version__ = "3.8.4"
+__version__ = "3.8.5"

@@ -53,6 +53,7 @@ Rules for the package:
 | [`sports_helpers`](#sports_helpers) | Small helpers every scoreboard `sports.py` copies | Yes (scoreboards) | 3.5.0 |
 | [`sports_live_scroll`](#sports_live_scroll) | Rebuild a live scroll strip mid-cycle without moving it | Yes (scoreboards) | 3.8.0 |
 | [`sports_plugin_host`](#sports_plugin_host) | Helpers of a scoreboard's plugin class (`manager.py`) | Yes (scoreboards) | 3.8.0 |
+| [`sports_rankings`](#sports_rankings) | Which teams are ranked, in which poll, and the "ranked" filter | Yes (scoreboards) | 3.8.5 |
 | [`sports_rotation`](#sports_rotation) | Which non-favourite games a scoreboard shows, and when the slice moves | Yes (scoreboards) | 3.8.4 |
 | [`sports_scroll`](#sports_scroll) | Scoreboard scroll-display orchestration | Yes (scoreboards) | 3.2.0 |
 | [`sports_shared`](#sports_shared) | Sport-independent `sports.py` methods | Yes (scoreboards) | 3.3.0 |
@@ -369,6 +370,22 @@ shape), `_dispatch_switch_refresh()` (a manager refresh on a daemon thread, so
 `display()` never waits on the network), `get_vegas_content_type()` and small
 dynamic-duration helpers. List it before `BasePlugin`.

+### sports_rankings
+
+[`sports_rankings.py`](sports_rankings.py). Sports family 8:
+`SportsRankingsMixin` (`SportsCore`), the rankings. `_fetch_team_rankings`
+loads the top-division poll hourly (only where `_league_has_rankings()`) as an
+abbreviation table, which the rank badge draws, and an ESPN team id table,
+which `_ranked_positions` reads first, so a school sharing a ranked team's
+abbreviation is not ranked. `_choose_poll` steps over seedings and lower
+divisions' polls and otherwise keeps ESPN's order;
+`choose_top_division_poll()` is the same rule for code without a scoreboard
+(the dynamic team resolvers). A poll whose season's `endDate` has passed loads
+nothing (`_poll_season_ended`), so between seasons no badge shows and the
+"ranked" filter fails open. `_load_division_team_ids` reads college football's
+FBS and FCS rosters for the season year; `_is_ranked_game`, `_best_rank` and
+`_passes_other_filters` serve the other-games selection.
+
 ### sports_rotation

 [`sports_rotation.py`](sports_rotation.py). Sports family 7:
@@ -0,0 +1,411 @@
+"""Which teams are ranked, and in which poll (sports family 8).
+
+The scoreboards' rankings code, reconciled in ledmatrix-plugins (family 8)
+from three, three and two bodies into one each, and copied here under the
+existing names. All of it lives on the plugins' ``SportsCore``, so there is
+one mixin, ``SportsRankingsMixin``:
+
+- ``_fetch_team_rankings()``: the top-division poll from the data source,
+  hourly, as ``_team_rankings_cache`` ({abbreviation: rank}, what the rank
+  badge draws) and ``_ranked_team_ids`` ({ESPN team id: rank}). Only for a
+  league ``_league_has_rankings()`` says publishes a poll.
+- ``_choose_poll(rankings_data)``: the first block ESPN lists that is a
+  top-division poll; seedings and the polls of lower divisions are stepped
+  over, ESPN's order is otherwise kept (so the CFP rankings take over from AP
+  when ESPN fronts them). ``choose_top_division_poll`` below is the same rule
+  for code with no scoreboard to hand (the dynamic team resolvers).
+- ``_poll_season_ended(poll, now)``: whether the poll's season is over.
+- ``_load_division_team_ids()``: team ids per college football division
+  (FBS, FCS) from ESPN's group rosters, for the season year.
+- ``_ranked_positions(game)``, ``_is_ranked_game(game)``, ``_best_rank(game)``:
+  the poll positions either side holds, by team id first, abbreviation second.
+- ``_passes_other_filters(game)``: whether a non-favourite game is worth a
+  slot under ``other_games_min_quality`` and ``other_games_divisions``.
+
+THE RULES (decided 2026-10-12)
+------------------------------
+Ranks are kept by ESPN team id as well as by abbreviation, and a game with ids
+is ranked by id: abbreviations are not unique (ESPN lists Ohio State and Ohio
+State Newark both as OSU) and an id cannot rank the wrong school. The badge
+still draws from the abbreviation table.
+
+A poll whose season has ended loads nothing. ESPN keeps serving the last poll
+it published until the next one (on 2026-10-12 college basketball's /rankings
+was still April's final poll, college lacrosse's May's), and every block names
+its season with an ``endDate``. Past it the table stays empty, so no badge
+shows and the "ranked" filter fails open, until the new season's first poll
+arrives. Read from the payload, not a calendar, so no league needs its own
+season dates; a block without a readable ``endDate`` counts as current.
+
+The division rosters are asked for the season year (July onward is this
+year's season): college football's season runs into January, and the next
+season's groups do not exist then. Only college football has division
+rosters (``_DIVISION_GROUPS_BY_LEAGUE``), so this is football's rule as is,
+not an override point.
+
+Everything fails open: no poll, an empty roster or a failed request allows
+every game rather than blanking the board.
+
+The data source decides the endpoint (``data_source.fetch_standings``, still
+per plugin); every scoreboard asks /rankings first for a college or NCAA
+league. A standings table is never turned into ranks.
+
+A new module rather than more methods on ``sports_shared``, for the reason
+``sports_helpers`` gives: a missing module fails at load, where the version
+checks see it; a missing method fails mid-update.
+
+WHAT A HOST MUST PROVIDE
+------------------------
+Derived by walking every ``self.<attr>`` the mixin reads; the host-contract
+test in ``test/test_sports_rankings.py`` fails if a read is added without being
+listed here. Every scoreboard ``SportsCore`` supplies all of them.
+
+- ``logger``, ``sport``, ``league``.
+- ``data_source`` -- ``fetch_standings(sport, league)`` returns the payload
+  (``{}`` on failure).
+- ``session`` -- ``get(url, params=..., timeout=...)`` for the division
+  rosters; ``cache_manager`` (may be ``None``) -- ``get(key)`` and
+  ``set(key, value, ttl=...)`` keep them a day.
+- ``_team_rankings_cache``, ``_ranked_team_ids`` and
+  ``_rankings_cache_timestamp`` -- the tables and when they were fetched
+  (0: never). Written here. ``_rankings_cache_duration`` -- seconds between
+  fetches.
+- ``_division_team_ids`` (``None``: never loaded) and ``_division_loaded_at``
+  -- the rosters and the monotonic time they were loaded. Written here.
+- ``other_games_min_quality`` and ``other_games_divisions`` -- the filters.
+- ``_league_has_rankings`` and ``_game_divisions`` -- from
+  ``SportsCoreSharedMixin``.
+- ``_rankings_loaded`` -- from ``SportsRotationMixin`` (football-scoreboard
+  overrides it to count the id table too).
+
+The methods read the game dict's ``home_id``, ``away_id``, ``home_abbr`` and
+``away_abbr``; any may be missing.
+
+BASE ORDER
+----------
+No other mixin defines these names, so the position in the bases does not
+change which body runs; a method on the plugin's own class still wins. The
+mixin has no ``__init__``; the state it writes is the host's.
+"""
+
+import logging
+import re
+import time
+from datetime import datetime, timezone
+from typing import Any, Callable, ClassVar, Dict, List, Optional, Tuple
+
+_LOGGER = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
+
+class SportsRankingsMixin:
+    """``SportsCore``'s rankings. See module docstring."""
+
+    # The host contract, declared for type checking only.
+    logger: Any
+    sport: str
+    league: str
+    data_source: Any
+    session: Any
+    cache_manager: Any
+    _team_rankings_cache: Dict[str, int]
+    _ranked_team_ids: Dict[int, int]
+    _rankings_cache_timestamp: float
+    _rankings_cache_duration: float
+    _division_team_ids: Optional[Dict[str, set]]
+    _division_loaded_at: float
+    other_games_min_quality: str
+    other_games_divisions: Any
+    _league_has_rankings: Callable[[], bool]
+    _game_divisions: Callable[[Dict], Optional[set]]
+    _rankings_loaded: Callable[[], bool]
+
+    # Which ranking block the badge reads. ESPN answers /rankings with more
+    # than one block for several leagues, and the FIRST is not always a poll:
+    # men's and women's college hockey front "NCAA Men's/Women's Hockey
+    # Tournament Seedings", and college lacrosse publishes seedings beside its
+    # Inside Lacrosse poll. College football fronts the AP Top 25 but also
+    # carries the FCS and Division II polls and gains the CFP rankings in
+    # November. An EXCLUDE list, not an allow list, so a poll ESPN invents
+    # still counts; type first and name second, because the Division II block
+    # types as "afca" while the FBS coaches poll -- also an AFCA poll -- types
+    # as "usa".
+    _NON_TOP_POLL_TYPES: ClassVar[frozenset] = frozenset({"tournament", "fcs"})
+    _NON_TOP_POLL_NAMES: ClassVar[Tuple[str, ...]] = (
+        "tournament", "seedings", "fcs",
+        "division ii", "division iii", "div ii", "div iii",
+    )
+
+    # ESPN group ids for the college football divisions, from its own group
+    # rosters (disjoint: 148 FBS team ids, 130 FCS). Keyed by league because
+    # no other league publishes usable rosters: college baseball and lacrosse
+    # answer HTTP 500, college basketball and hockey an empty list.
+    _DIVISION_GROUPS_BY_LEAGUE: ClassVar[Dict[str, Dict[str, int]]] = {
+        "college-football": {"fbs": 80, "fcs": 81},
+    }
+    _DIVISION_CACHE_TTL: ClassVar[int] = 24 * 60 * 60
+    # A lookup that came back empty is retried on this shorter clock.
+    _DIVISION_RETRY_SECONDS: ClassVar[int] = 10 * 60
+
+    def _choose_poll(self, rankings_data: Optional[List[Dict]]) -> Dict:
+        """The first block ESPN lists that is an actual top-division poll.
+
+        ESPN's own order is otherwise kept, so whichever poll it fronts is the
+        one that drives the badge.
+        """
+        for block in rankings_data or []:
+            name = str(block.get("name") or "").lower()
+            kind = str(block.get("type") or "").lower()
+            if kind in self._NON_TOP_POLL_TYPES or any(
+                marker in name for marker in self._NON_TOP_POLL_NAMES
+            ):
+                self.logger.debug(
+                    "%s: skipping %s -- not a top-division poll",
+                    getattr(self, "league", "?"), block.get("name") or kind)
+                continue
+            return block
+        return {}
+
+    def _fetch_team_rankings(self) -> Dict[str, int]:
+        """Fetch team rankings using the new architecture components."""
+        current_time = time.time()
+
+        # No poll, no fetch. _league_has_rankings already gated the
+        # quality-filter call site; the show_ranking call sites did not, so
+        # ticking "Show Ranking" on a league that publishes no poll sent two
+        # requests an hour to endpoints that cannot answer. Gating here rather
+        # than at each call site covers every caller at once and cannot drift
+        # apart again.
+        #
+        # It is also the setting's only honest answer on those leagues: the
+        # rank badge replaces the record, so an empty table meant "Show
+        # Ranking" quietly erased the records "Show Records" was drawing. The
+        # schema now hides the toggle wherever the league has no poll, but a
+        # config saved before that still carries it.
+        if not self._league_has_rankings():
+            return self._team_rankings_cache
+
+        # Check if we have cached rankings that are still valid
+        # Gate on when the last look happened, not on whether it found
+        # anything. Professional leagues publish no poll, so `rankings`
+        # comes back empty -- and an empty dict is falsy, so this guard
+        # never short-circuited and the standings endpoint was re-fetched
+        # on every update instead of hourly. Measured 2026-09-19 on an
+        # MLB-only rig: 453 standings requests in a day against the 24
+        # the one-hour duration intends. An empty result is a result.
+        if (
+            self._rankings_cache_timestamp
+            and current_time - self._rankings_cache_timestamp
+            < self._rankings_cache_duration
+        ):
+            return self._team_rankings_cache
+
+        try:
+            data = self.data_source.fetch_standings(self.sport, self.league)
+
+            rankings: Dict[str, int] = {}
+            ranked_ids: Dict[int, int] = {}
+            poll = self._choose_poll(data.get("rankings", []))
+            if self._poll_season_ended(poll, current_time):
+                self.logger.info(
+                    "%s: %s is from a season that has ended; no rank badges "
+                    "until the new season's first poll", self.league,
+                    poll.get("name") or "the poll",
+                )
+                poll = {}
+
+            for team_data in poll.get("ranks", []):
+                team_info = team_data.get("team", {})
+                team_abbr = team_info.get("abbreviation", "")
+                current_rank = team_data.get("current", 0)
+                if current_rank <= 0:
+                    continue
+                if team_abbr:
+                    rankings[team_abbr] = current_rank
+                # Kept by id as well as by abbreviation. The badge draws the
+                # abbreviation, but abbreviations are not unique across
+                # divisions and the FBS and FCS schedules arrive in the SAME
+                # scoreboard payload -- ESPN has SDSU for San Diego State and
+                # SDST for South Dakota State today, and nothing promises it
+                # stays that way. An id cannot rank the wrong school.
+                try:
+                    ranked_ids[int(team_info.get("id"))] = current_rank
+                except (TypeError, ValueError):
+                    pass
+
+            # Cache the results
+            self._team_rankings_cache = rankings
+            self._ranked_team_ids = ranked_ids
+            self._rankings_cache_timestamp = current_time
+
+            if rankings:
+                self.logger.info(
+                    "%s: %d ranked teams loaded from %s", self.league,
+                    len(rankings), poll.get("name") or "an unnamed poll",
+                )
+            else:
+                self.logger.debug("Fetched rankings for 0 teams")
+            return rankings
+
+        except Exception as e:
+            self.logger.error(f"Error fetching team rankings: {e}")
+            return {}
+
+    @staticmethod
+    def _poll_season_ended(poll: Dict, now: float) -> bool:
+        """Is this poll from a season that is already over?
+
+        ESPN keeps serving the last poll it published until the next one
+        appears: in October, college basketball's /rankings is still April's
+        final poll and college lacrosse's is May's. Every block names its
+        season with an ``endDate``; once that has passed, the badge would rank
+        teams on a finished season, so the table stays empty until the new
+        season's first poll arrives. Asked of the data rather than a calendar,
+        so no league needs its own season dates. A block without a readable
+        ``endDate`` counts as current, as before.
+        """
+        season = poll.get("season")
+        end = str(season.get("endDate") or "") if isinstance(season, dict) else ""
+        try:
+            ended = datetime.strptime(end[:16], "%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M")
+        except ValueError:
+            return False
+        return now > ended.replace(tzinfo=timezone.utc).timestamp()
+
+    def _load_division_team_ids(self) -> Dict[str, set]:
+        """Team ids per college division. Two requests a day, one league.
+
+        Returns empty sets on any failure -- the caller treats "unknown" as
+        "allowed", because a division lookup that fails must not blank the
+        board.
+
+        The in-memory copy expires like the stored one. Holding it for the life
+        of the process meant two things, both silent: a board that happened to
+        be offline for the first lookup had division filtering disabled until
+        someone restarted the service, which on a display running for weeks is
+        indefinitely; and a roster that changed between seasons was never
+        picked up. A failed lookup is retried sooner than a good one, so a
+        blip costs minutes rather than a day, without retrying per frame.
+        """
+        now = time.monotonic()
+        if self._division_team_ids is not None:
+            resolved = any(self._division_team_ids.values())
+            age_limit = self._DIVISION_CACHE_TTL if resolved else self._DIVISION_RETRY_SECONDS
+            if now - self._division_loaded_at < age_limit:
+                return self._division_team_ids
+        self._division_team_ids = {}
+        self._division_loaded_at = now
+        groups = self._DIVISION_GROUPS_BY_LEAGUE.get((self.league or "").lower())
+        if not groups:
+            return self._division_team_ids     # no divisions to speak of
+        for name, group in groups.items():
+            ids = set()
+            key = f"{self.league}_division_teams_{group}"
+            try:
+                cached = self.cache_manager.get(key) if self.cache_manager else None
+                if cached:
+                    ids = {int(i) for i in cached}
+                else:
+                    # The SEASON year, not the calendar year. College
+                    # football's 2026 season runs into January 2027, and asking
+                    # for season 2027 in January returns groups that do not
+                    # exist yet: the roster comes back empty, division
+                    # filtering fails open, and it does so through the bowls
+                    # and the playoff -- the weeks anyone is watching.
+                    today = datetime.now()
+                    season = today.year if today.month >= 7 else today.year - 1
+                    url = (
+                        "https://sports.core.api.espn.com/v2/sports/"
+                        f"{self.sport}/leagues/{self.league}/seasons/"
+                        f"{season}/types/2/groups/{group}/teams"
+                    )
+                    resp = self.session.get(url, params={"limit": 300}, timeout=15)
+                    resp.raise_for_status()
+                    for item in resp.json().get("items", []):
+                        found = re.search(r"/teams/(\d+)", item.get("$ref", ""))
+                        if found:
+                            ids.add(int(found.group(1)))
+                    if ids and self.cache_manager:
+                        self.cache_manager.set(
+                            key, sorted(ids), ttl=self._DIVISION_CACHE_TTL
+                        )
+            except Exception as exc:
+                self.logger.warning(
+                    "Could not resolve %s teams for %s (%s); division filtering "
+                    "will allow everything", name, self.league, exc
+                )
+            self._division_team_ids[name] = ids
+        return self._division_team_ids
+
+    def _ranked_positions(self, game: Dict) -> List[int]:
+        """Poll positions held by either side: ids first, abbreviations second.
+
+        The id table is authoritative whenever the game carries ids and a poll
+        has been parsed, because it is built from a top-division poll alone --
+        so an FCS side cannot appear in it however it is abbreviated, and an
+        abbreviation shared across divisions cannot promote the wrong school.
+        The abbreviation table stays as the fallback for a game dict with no
+        ids on it.
+        """
+        by_id = getattr(self, "_ranked_team_ids", None) or {}
+        ids = []
+        for side in ("home_id", "away_id"):
+            try:
+                ids.append(int(game.get(side)))  # type: ignore[arg-type]  # None: caught below
+            except (TypeError, ValueError):
+                ids = []
+                break
+        if by_id and ids:
+            return [rank for rank in (by_id.get(i, 0) for i in ids) if rank]
+        by_abbr = getattr(self, "_team_rankings_cache", None) or {}
+        return [rank for rank in (by_abbr.get(game.get("home_abbr"), 0),
+                                  by_abbr.get(game.get("away_abbr"), 0)) if rank]
+
+    def _is_ranked_game(self, game: Dict) -> bool:
+        return bool(self._ranked_positions(game))
+
+    def _best_rank(self, game: Dict) -> int:
+        """The better of the two sides' poll positions, or 99 if neither ranks."""
+        found = self._ranked_positions(game)
+        return min(found) if found else 99
+
+    def _passes_other_filters(self, game: Dict) -> bool:
+        """Is this non-favourite game worth one of the remaining slots?
+
+        "ranked" means ranked in the TOP division's poll -- see _choose_poll.
+        An FCS side ranked in its own poll does not qualify the game it is
+        playing in, which for college football is most often an FCS school
+        visiting an unranked FBS one.
+
+        Every check fails OPEN. If rankings could not be fetched or the
+        division rosters did not resolve, the game is allowed: a board showing
+        filler is a poor board, but a board showing nothing is a broken one.
+        """
+        if self.other_games_min_quality == "ranked":
+            if self._rankings_loaded() and not self._is_ranked_game(game):
+                return False
+
+        wanted = self.other_games_divisions
+        if wanted:
+            present = self._game_divisions(game)
+            if present is not None and not (present & set(wanted)):
+                return False
+        return True
+
+
+class _PollChooser(SportsRankingsMixin):
+    """Just enough host for ``_choose_poll``."""
+
+    def __init__(self, logger: Any, league: str) -> None:
+        self.logger = logger
+        self.league = league
+
+
+def choose_top_division_poll(rankings_data: Optional[List[Dict]], logger: Any = None,
+                             label: Optional[str] = None) -> Dict:
+    """``SportsRankingsMixin._choose_poll`` for code without a scoreboard.
+
+    The one rule, for the dynamic team resolvers that expand ``AP_TOP_25`` and
+    the like, so the badge and the favourites they resolve read the same poll.
+    ``label`` names the league in the debug line for a skipped block.
+    """
+    return _PollChooser(logger or _LOGGER, label or "?")._choose_poll(rankings_data)
@@ -65,7 +65,7 @@ listed here. Every scoreboard ``SportsCore`` supplies all of them.
  getattr, so a manager that never built it does not rotate.
 - ``_compose_selection`` -- from ``SportsCoreSharedMixin``.
 - ``_best_rank`` -- a game's better poll position, 99 if neither side ranks
-  (family 8, still per-plugin).
+  (family 8: ``src.common.sports_rankings``).
 - ``_team_rankings_cache`` -- read with getattr by the default
  ``_rankings_loaded``.
 - ``games_list``, ``current_game``, ``current_game_index``,
@@ -55,13 +55,15 @@ State: ``config``, ``fonts``, ``logger``, ``display_width``, ``display_height``,
 Methods that stay per-plugin, because they are not identical across the eight
 (or, for ``_get_timezone``, because they bind per-plugin modules):
 ``_get_layout_offset``, ``_upcoming_date_and_time_text``,
-``_extract_game_details_common``, ``_load_division_team_ids``,
-``_get_timezone``, ``_is_ranked_game``, ``_passes_other_filters``. Three
-families were here until the plugins reconciled them: ``_is_game_really_over``,
-which ``_detect_stale_games`` below calls, is now ``src.common.sports_game_over``;
-``_is_favorite_game`` is ``src.common.sports_favorites``; and
+``_extract_game_details_common``, ``_get_timezone``. Four families were
+here until the plugins reconciled them: ``_is_game_really_over``, which
+``_detect_stale_games`` below calls, is now ``src.common.sports_game_over``;
+``_is_favorite_game`` is ``src.common.sports_favorites``;
 ``_by_importance`` and ``_other_games_window``, which ``_favorites_first`` and
-``_compose_selection`` below call, are ``src.common.sports_rotation``.
+``_compose_selection`` below call, are ``src.common.sports_rotation``; and
+``_load_division_team_ids``, ``_is_ranked_game`` and ``_passes_other_filters``
+(``_game_divisions``, ``_check_ranking_coverage`` and ``_favorites_first``
+below call them) are ``src.common.sports_rankings``.

 Of the fourteen shared class constants, thirteen are identical everywhere and
 live here. Only ``_SCORE_PROBE_TEXT`` varies -- afl and basketball reach three digits
@@ -0,0 +1,379 @@
+"""src.common.sports_rankings: the poll, the tables, the season, the filter.
+
+The cases follow ledmatrix-plugins' ``scripts/test_rankings.py`` (the tables
+the family 8 reconcile was checked against); the expected values are its
+columns, which agree across all nine scoreboards for everything this module
+does. The host is the mixin over core's ``SportsCoreSharedMixin``
+(``_league_has_rankings``, ``_game_divisions``) and ``SportsRotationMixin``
+(``_rankings_loaded``), with a data source and an HTTP session that answer
+from fixtures shaped like ESPN's payloads. Nothing reaches the network.
+"""
+
+import ast
+import logging
+from datetime import datetime, timezone
+from pathlib import Path
+from unittest.mock import MagicMock
+
+import pytest
+
+from src.common import sports_rankings
+from src.common.sports_favorites import SportsFavoritesMixin
+from src.common.sports_helpers import SportsHelpersMixin
+from src.common.sports_rankings import SportsRankingsMixin, choose_top_division_poll
+from src.common.sports_rotation import SportsRotationMixin
+from src.common.sports_shared import SportsCoreSharedMixin
+
+LOG = logging.getLogger("test_sports_rankings")
+CORE_API = "https://sports.core.api.espn.com/v2/sports/"
+
+UGA, ND, OSU, TEX, VAN, SDSU = ("61", "UGA"), ("87", "ND"), ("194", "OSU"), \
+    ("251", "TEX"), ("238", "VAN"), ("21", "SDSU")
+SDST, NDSU, NEWARK, FRST, DEN = ("2571", "SDST"), ("2449", "NDSU"), \
+    ("9194", "OSU"), ("9001", "FRST"), ("2172", "DEN")
+FBS_IDS, FCS_IDS = (UGA, ND, OSU, TEX, VAN, SDSU), (SDST, NDSU)
+
+
+def poll(name, kind, *teams, **extra):
+    return {"name": name, "shortName": name, "type": kind, **extra, "ranks": [
+        {"current": n, "previous": n, "team": {"id": tid, "abbreviation": abbr}}
+        for n, (tid, abbr) in enumerate(teams, 1)]}
+
+
+AP = poll("AP Top 25", "ap", UGA, ND, OSU, SDSU)
+COACHES = poll("AFCA Coaches Poll", "usa", ND, UGA, TEX)
+CFP = poll("College Football Playoff Rankings", "cfp", OSU, UGA)
+FCS = poll("FCS Coaches Poll", "fcs", NDSU, SDST)
+D2 = poll("AFCA Division II Coaches Poll", "afca", FRST)
+SEEDS = poll("NCAA Men's Hockey Tournament Seedings", "tournament", DEN)
+USCHO = poll("USCHO Men's Poll", "USCHOMENSPOLL", DEN, ND)
+AP_TABLE = {"ND": 2, "OSU": 3, "SDSU": 4, "UGA": 1}
+AP_IDS = {194: 3, 21: 4, 61: 1, 87: 2}
+
+
+def at(text):
+    return datetime.fromisoformat(text).replace(tzinfo=timezone.utc).timestamp()
+
+
+class Clock:
+    def __init__(self):
+        self.now = 100_000.0
+
+    def __call__(self):
+        return self.now
+
+
+@pytest.fixture
+def clock(monkeypatch):
+    c = Clock()
+    monkeypatch.setattr(sports_rankings.time, "time", c)
+    monkeypatch.setattr(sports_rankings.time, "monotonic", c)
+    return c
+
+
+class Rosters:
+    """The core API's division rosters, published up to ``last`` season."""
+
+    def __init__(self, last=2026):
+        self.last, self.urls = last, []
+
+    def get(self, url, params=None, timeout=None):
+        self.urls.append(url[len(CORE_API):])
+        season, group = url.split("/seasons/")[1].split("/")[0], url.split("/groups/")[1][:2]
+        ids = {"80": FBS_IDS, "81": FCS_IDS}[group] if int(season) <= self.last else ()
+        resp = MagicMock()
+        resp.json.return_value = {"items": [{"$ref": f"{CORE_API}x/teams/{t}?lang=en"}
+                                            for t, _ in ids]}
+        return resp
+
+
+class Host(SportsRankingsMixin, SportsRotationMixin, SportsCoreSharedMixin,
+           SportsFavoritesMixin, SportsHelpersMixin):
+    """A scoreboard SportsCore as far as the rankings reach."""
+
+    sport = "football"
+
+    def __init__(self, league="college-football", payload=None, quality="any",
+                 divisions=(), rosters=None):
+        self.logger = LOG
+        self.league = league
+        self.data_source = MagicMock()
+        self.data_source.fetch_standings.return_value = (
+            {"rankings": [AP, COACHES]} if payload is None else payload)
+        self.session = rosters or Rosters()
+        self.cache_manager = MagicMock()
+        self.cache_manager.get.return_value = None
+        self._team_rankings_cache, self._ranked_team_ids = {}, {}
+        self._rankings_cache_timestamp, self._rankings_cache_duration = 0, 3600
+        self._division_team_ids, self._division_loaded_at = None, 0.0
+        self.other_games_min_quality = quality
+        self.other_games_divisions = list(divisions)
+
+
+def tables(host):
+    return host._team_rankings_cache, host._ranked_team_ids
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Which poll
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+POLL_SETS = [
+    ([AP, COACHES], "AP Top 25"),
+    ([COACHES, AP], "AFCA Coaches Poll"),
+    ([CFP, AP, COACHES], "College Football Playoff Rankings"),
+    ([FCS, D2, AP, COACHES], "AP Top 25"),
+    ([FCS, D2], None),
+    ([poll("Coaches Poll", "fcs", NDSU), AP], "AP Top 25"),     # by type alone
+    ([SEEDS, USCHO], "USCHO Men's Poll"),
+    ([], None),
+    (None, None),
+]
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("blocks, expected", POLL_SETS)
+def test_the_poll_chosen(blocks, expected):
+    assert Host()._choose_poll(blocks).get("name") == expected
+    assert choose_top_division_poll(blocks).get("name") == expected
+
+
+def test_an_untyped_unnamed_block_counts():
+    """An exclude list: a block ESPN invents is a poll unless it says otherwise."""
+    assert choose_top_division_poll([{"ranks": []}]) == {"ranks": []}
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# The tables
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("league, asked", [
+    ("college-football", True), ("mens-college-basketball", True),
+    ("usa.ncaa.m.1", True), ("nfl", False), ("nba", False), ("eng.1", False)])
+def test_only_a_league_with_a_poll_is_asked(clock, league, asked):
+    host = Host(league)
+    host._fetch_team_rankings()
+    assert host.data_source.fetch_standings.called is asked
+    assert tables(host) == ((AP_TABLE, AP_IDS) if asked else ({}, {}))
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("payload, abbr, ids", [
+    ({}, {}, {}),
+    ({"rankings": []}, {}, {}),
+    ({"rankings": None}, {}, {}),
+    ({"rankings": [{"name": "AP Top 25", "type": "ap"}]}, {}, {}),
+    ({"rankings": [{"name": "AP Top 25", "type": "ap", "ranks": [
+        {"current": 0, "team": {"id": "61", "abbreviation": "UGA"}},
+        {"current": -1, "team": {"id": "87", "abbreviation": "ND"}},
+        {"team": {"id": "194", "abbreviation": "OSU"}},
+        {"current": 4, "team": {"id": "251", "abbreviation": "TEX"}}]}]},
+     {"TEX": 4}, {251: 4}),
+    ({"rankings": [{"name": "AP Top 25", "type": "ap", "ranks": [
+        {"current": 1},
+        {"current": 2, "team": {"id": "87"}},
+        {"current": 3, "team": {"id": "abc", "abbreviation": "OSU"}},
+        {"current": 4, "team": {"abbreviation": "TEX"}}]}]},
+     {"OSU": 3, "TEX": 4}, {87: 2}),
+])
+def test_payload_shapes(clock, payload, abbr, ids):
+    host = Host(payload=payload)
+    host._fetch_team_rankings()
+    assert tables(host) == (abbr, ids)
+    assert host._rankings_cache_timestamp == clock.now     # an empty answer is cached too
+
+
+def test_a_failed_fetch_is_not_cached(clock):
+    host = Host(payload={"rankings": {"name": "AP Top 25"}})   # not a list
+    assert host._fetch_team_rankings() == {}
+    assert host._rankings_cache_timestamp == 0
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("payload", [{"rankings": [AP, COACHES]}, {"rankings": []}])
+def test_rankings_are_fetched_hourly(clock, payload):
+    host = Host(payload=payload)
+    calls = []
+    for step in (0, 60, 3599, 3601):
+        clock.now = 100_000.0 + step
+        before = host.data_source.fetch_standings.call_count
+        host._fetch_team_rankings()
+        calls.append(host.data_source.fetch_standings.call_count - before)
+    assert calls == [1, 0, 0, 1]
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# A poll from a season that has ended
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("end, now, kept", [
+    ("2026-04-08T06:59Z", "2026-10-12T12:00", False),     # college basketball in October
+    ("2026-04-08T06:59Z", "2026-04-08T06:58", True),
+    ("2026-04-08T06:59Z", "2026-04-08T06:59", True),      # at endDate: not yet over
+    ("2026-04-08T06:59Z", "2026-04-08T07:00", False),
+    ("2027-01-28T07:59Z", "2027-01-10T12:00", True),      # bowl week
+    ("2027-04-08T06:59Z", "2026-11-03T12:00", True),      # the new season's first poll
+    ("2026-04-08T06:59:00Z", "2026-10-12T12:00", False),
+    ("April", "2026-10-12T12:00", True),                  # unreadable: current
+    (None, "2026-10-12T12:00", True),                     # no season block
+])
+def test_a_finished_seasons_poll_loads_nothing(clock, end, now, kept):
+    block = dict(AP, season={"year": 2026, "endDate": end}) if end else AP
+    host = Host(payload={"rankings": [block, COACHES]})
+    clock.now = at(now)
+    host._fetch_team_rankings()
+    assert tables(host) == ((AP_TABLE, AP_IDS) if kept else ({}, {}))
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Division rosters
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+class Frozen(datetime):
+    at = datetime(2026, 10, 12, 12)
+
+    @classmethod
+    def now(cls, tz=None):
+        return cls.at
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("today, season, sizes", [
+    ("2026-01-15", 2025, (6, 2)), ("2026-06-30", 2025, (6, 2)),
+    ("2026-07-01", 2026, (6, 2)), ("2026-10-12", 2026, (6, 2)),
+    ("2026-12-31", 2026, (6, 2)), ("2027-01-15", 2026, (6, 2))])
+def test_the_rosters_are_for_the_season_year(clock, monkeypatch, today, season, sizes):
+    monkeypatch.setattr(sports_rankings, "datetime", Frozen)
+    Frozen.at = datetime.fromisoformat(today)
+    host = Host()
+    rosters = host._load_division_team_ids()
+    assert host.session.urls == [
+        f"football/leagues/college-football/seasons/{season}/types/2/groups/{g}/teams"
+        for g in (80, 81)]
+    assert (len(rosters["fbs"]), len(rosters["fcs"])) == sizes
+
+
+def test_no_rosters_outside_college_football(clock):
+    host = Host("mens-college-basketball")
+    assert host._load_division_team_ids() == {}
+    assert host.session.urls == []
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("last, cached, calls, sizes", [
+    (2026, None, [2, 0, 0, 2], (6, 2)),          # a day
+    (0, None, [2, 0, 2, 2], (0, 0)),             # empty: retried after 10 minutes
+    (2026, "cache", [0, 0, 0, 0], (2, 1)),       # the cache manager's copy
+])
+def test_roster_caching(clock, last, cached, calls, sizes):
+    host = Host(rosters=Rosters(last))
+    if cached:
+        host.cache_manager.get.side_effect = lambda key, *a, **k: (
+            ["61", "87"] if key.endswith("_80") else ["2571"])
+    made = []
+    for step in (0, 60, 601, 86_401):
+        clock.now = 100_000.0 + step
+        before = len(host.session.urls)
+        host._load_division_team_ids()
+        made.append(len(host.session.urls) - before)
+    rosters = host._division_team_ids
+    assert made == calls
+    assert (len(rosters["fbs"]), len(rosters["fcs"])) == sizes
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Ranked games and the filter
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+GAMES = {
+    "UGA v TEX": (UGA, TEX),
+    "TEX v VAN": (TEX, VAN),
+    "OSU v VAN": (OSU, VAN),
+    "Newark 'OSU' v VAN": (NEWARK, VAN),
+    "SDSU v SDST": (SDSU, SDST),
+    "SDST v NDSU": (SDST, NDSU),
+    "'OSU' v VAN, no ids": ((None, "OSU"), (None, "VAN")),
+    "61 v 238, no abbrs": (("61", None), ("238", None)),
+}
+
+
+def game(label):
+    g = {"id": "g"}
+    for side, (tid, abbr) in zip(("home", "away"), GAMES[label]):
+        if tid is not None:
+            g[f"{side}_id"] = tid
+        if abbr is not None:
+            g[f"{side}_abbr"] = abbr
+    return g
+
+
+def loaded(**kwargs):
+    host = Host(**kwargs)
+    host._fetch_team_rankings()
+    return host
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("label, best", [
+    ("UGA v TEX", 1), ("TEX v VAN", 99), ("OSU v VAN", 3),
+    ("Newark 'OSU' v VAN", 99),          # same abbreviation, another school: by id
+    ("SDSU v SDST", 4), ("SDST v NDSU", 99),
+    ("'OSU' v VAN, no ids", 3),          # no ids: by abbreviation
+    ("61 v 238, no abbrs", 1)])
+def test_ranked_and_best_rank(clock, label, best):
+    host = loaded()
+    assert host._best_rank(game(label)) == best
+    assert host._is_ranked_game(game(label)) is (best != 99)
+
+
+#: filter -> (quality, divisions, poll loaded?, kept: one Y/. per GAMES entry)
+FILTERS = {
+    "any": ("any", (), True, "YYYYYYYY"),
+    "ranked": ("ranked", (), True, "Y.Y.Y.YY"),
+    "ranked, no poll loaded": ("ranked", (), False, "YYYYYYYY"),
+    "any, fbs": ("any", ("fbs",), True, "YYYYY.YY"),
+    "ranked, fbs": ("ranked", ("fbs",), True, "Y.Y.Y.YY"),
+    "any, fcs": ("any", ("fcs",), True, "....YYY."),
+}
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("name", FILTERS)
+def test_passes_other_filters(clock, monkeypatch, name):
+    quality, divisions, with_poll, kept = FILTERS[name]
+    monkeypatch.setattr(sports_rankings, "datetime", Frozen)
+    Frozen.at = datetime(2026, 10, 12, 12)
+    host = loaded(payload={"rankings": [AP, COACHES] if with_poll else []},
+                  quality=quality, divisions=divisions)
+    assert "".join("Y" if host._passes_other_filters(game(g)) else "." for g in GAMES) == kept
+
+
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+# Carrier and host contract
+# ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+MEMBERS = ["_DIVISION_CACHE_TTL", "_DIVISION_GROUPS_BY_LEAGUE", "_DIVISION_RETRY_SECONDS",
+           "_NON_TOP_POLL_NAMES", "_NON_TOP_POLL_TYPES", "_best_rank", "_choose_poll",
+           "_fetch_team_rankings", "_is_ranked_game", "_load_division_team_ids",
+           "_passes_other_filters", "_poll_season_ended", "_ranked_positions"]
+
+
+def _self_reads():
+    tree = ast.parse(Path(sports_rankings.__file__).read_text(encoding="utf-8"))
+    return {node.attr for node in ast.walk(tree)
+            if isinstance(node, ast.Attribute) and isinstance(node.ctx, ast.Load)
+            and isinstance(node.value, ast.Name) and node.value.id == "self"}
+
+
+class TestHostContract:
+    def test_the_mixin_carries_only_the_family(self):
+        """Every scoreboard's SportsCore has all of them, so adopting it adds none."""
+        assert sorted(n for n in vars(SportsRankingsMixin)
+                      if not n.startswith("__")) == MEMBERS
+
+    def test_every_host_read_is_documented(self):
+        own = set(MEMBERS)
+        undocumented = sorted(n for n in _self_reads() - own
+                              if f"``{n}``" not in sports_rankings.__doc__)
+        assert undocumented == [], f"read but not in the host contract: {undocumented}"
+
+    def test_no_other_shared_mixin_defines_these(self):
+        from src.common import sports_display_rules, sports_shared
+        others = [sports_shared.SportsCoreSharedMixin, sports_shared.SportsRecentSharedMixin,
+                  sports_shared.SportsLiveSharedMixin, SportsHelpersMixin,
+                  SportsFavoritesMixin, SportsRotationMixin,
+                  sports_display_rules.SportsGameRulesMixin]
+        assert [m for m in MEMBERS if any(m in vars(o) for o in others)] == []
@@ -0,0 +1,132 @@
+"""sports_rankings still matches every plugin copy.
+
+``src.common.sports_rankings`` was copied from the scoreboards once family 8
+had made each method one body in all nine ``SportsCore`` classes:
+``_choose_poll``, ``_fetch_team_rankings``, ``_poll_season_ended``,
+``_load_division_team_ids``, ``_ranked_positions``, ``_is_ranked_game``,
+``_best_rank`` and ``_passes_other_filters``, with the class constants they
+read. The plugins delete their copies once they floor on the release that
+ships this module. Until each has, a copy that changes on its own is a fix one
+side has and the other lacks.
+
+Point LEDMATRIX_PLUGINS at a ledmatrix-plugins checkout and each method is
+compared with every plugin copy using ``scripts/sports_drift_report.py``'s own
+normalisation (the AST with docstrings and annotations dropped), plus the
+decorators, and each constant a plugin still defines by its expression. A copy that is
+gone counts as adopted when the plugin's ``sports.py`` names the module.
+Without the variable this skips: core CI has no plugins checkout.
+"""
+
+import ast
+import importlib.util
+import os
+from pathlib import Path
+
+import pytest
+
+from src.common import sports_rankings
+
+REPO = Path(__file__).resolve().parents[1]
+SPORTS = ("afl", "baseball", "basketball", "football", "hockey", "lacrosse",
+          "nrl", "soccer", "ufc")
+CARRIER, MIXIN = "SportsCore", "SportsRankingsMixin"
+METHODS = ("_choose_poll", "_fetch_team_rankings", "_poll_season_ended",
+           "_load_division_team_ids", "_ranked_positions", "_is_ranked_game",
+           "_best_rank", "_passes_other_filters")
+CONSTANTS = ("_NON_TOP_POLL_TYPES", "_NON_TOP_POLL_NAMES", "_DIVISION_GROUPS_BY_LEAGUE",
+             "_DIVISION_CACHE_TTL", "_DIVISION_RETRY_SECONDS")
+
+
+def _drift_report():
+    """scripts/sports_drift_report.py, loaded by path (scripts/ is no package)."""
+    spec = importlib.util.spec_from_file_location(
+        "sports_drift_report", REPO / "scripts" / "sports_drift_report.py")
+    module = importlib.util.module_from_spec(spec)
+    spec.loader.exec_module(module)
+    return module
+
+
+DRIFT = _drift_report()
+
+
+def _plugins_root():
+    root = DRIFT.resolve_plugins_dir(os.environ.get("LEDMATRIX_PLUGINS"))
+    if root is None:
+        pytest.skip("set LEDMATRIX_PLUGINS to a ledmatrix-plugins checkout to "
+                    "compare this module against the plugin copies")
+    return root
+
+
+def _class(tree, name):
+    return next(n for n in tree.body if isinstance(n, ast.ClassDef) and n.name == name)
+
+
+def _method(cls, name):
+    return next((n for n in cls.body
+                 if isinstance(n, ast.FunctionDef) and n.name == name), None)
+
+
+def _constant(cls, name):
+    """The value a class body assigns to ``name`` (plain or annotated), or None."""
+    for node in cls.body:
+        if isinstance(node, ast.Assign) and any(
+                isinstance(t, ast.Name) and t.id == name for t in node.targets):
+            return node.value
+        if isinstance(node, ast.AnnAssign) and isinstance(node.target, ast.Name) \
+                and node.target.id == name:
+            return node.value
+    return None
+
+
+def _fingerprint(node):
+    return (DRIFT._digest(node, DRIFT._Canonical()),
+            tuple(ast.unparse(d) for d in node.decorator_list))
+
+
+def _plugin_tree(root, sport):
+    source = (root / f"{sport}-scoreboard" / "sports.py").read_text(encoding="utf-8")
+    return source, ast.parse(source)
+
+
+OURS = _class(ast.parse(Path(sports_rankings.__file__).read_text(encoding="utf-8")), MIXIN)
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("sport, name", [(s, n) for s in SPORTS for n in METHODS])
+def test_every_remaining_plugin_copy_matches(sport, name):
+    source, tree = _plugin_tree(_plugins_root(), sport)
+    copy = _method(_class(tree, CARRIER), name)
+    if copy is None:
+        assert sports_rankings.__name__ in source, (
+            f"{sport}: no {name} on {CARRIER} and no {sports_rankings.__name__} import")
+    else:
+        assert _fingerprint(copy) == _fingerprint(_method(OURS, name)), (
+            f"{CARRIER}.{name} in {sport} differs from sports_rankings. "
+            f"Port the change to both, or stop treating it as shared.")
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("sport", SPORTS)
+def test_the_plugin_constants_match(sport):
+    _, tree = _plugin_tree(_plugins_root(), sport)
+    core = _class(tree, CARRIER)
+    for name in CONSTANTS:
+        value = _constant(core, name)
+        if value is not None:
+            assert ast.dump(value) == ast.dump(_constant(OURS, name)), f"{sport}: {name}"
+
+
+@pytest.mark.parametrize("sport", SPORTS)
+def test_no_other_plugin_class_carries_a_copy(sport):
+    """A copy on another class would shadow the shared one for that class."""
+    _, tree = _plugin_tree(_plugins_root(), sport)
+    strays = [f"{node.name}.{name}" for node in tree.body if isinstance(node, ast.ClassDef)
+              for name in METHODS if node.name != CARRIER and _method(node, name) is not None]
+    assert strays == []
+
+
+def test_the_drift_report_calls_them_identical():
+    families = DRIFT.build(_plugins_root(), ("sports.py",))
+    rows = {(r["file"], r["family"]): r
+            for r in (DRIFT.summarise(k, v) for k, v in families.items())}
+    for name in METHODS:
+        row = rows.get(("sports.py", name))
+        assert row is None or row["worst_class_variants"] == 1, name