> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://sportsindex.mintlify.site/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# How the Index Works

> Sources, attribution, and what the metrics mean

Sports Index is built like an index provider: published constituents, a consistent pipeline, and inspectable output. This page explains each stage.

## 1. Sources

Coverage is ingested from curated source sets, starting with the **Sports Index National Sources** — official national college-football media organizations (no individual personalities or analysts). Local (per-school) and conference source sets follow the same model. The live list, with per-source post counts and coverage spans, is public at [sportsindex.io/sources](https://sportsindex.io/sources).

## 2. Indexing

Every story and post from a tracked source becomes an indexed item: headline, link, excerpt, source, platform, and timestamp. The full corpus is browsable in the [Newsroom](https://sportsindex.io/newsroom).

## 3. Attribution

Each indexed item runs through an attribution engine that links it to the athletes and programs it covers, using context-aware matching across 6,000+ tracked Power 4 athletes — names, handles, schools, positions, and program references. Attribution is algorithmic with precision-first guardrails (reviewed regularly), and it powers everything downstream: coverage counts, most-covered rankings, per-athlete news feeds, and story selection.

<Callout type="note">
  Attribution can contain errors — same-name collisions are the hard case. Items with questionable attribution are reviewed and corrected; if you spot one, contact us.
</Callout>

## 4. Metrics & rankings

From the attributed corpus plus social and statistical data, Sports Index computes:

* **Coverage volume** — attributed mentions per athlete/program over time
* **Following & growth** — Instagram and X follower levels and deltas, snapshotted over time
* **On-field statistics** — season and game-level stat lines
* **Trending & most-covered rankings** — movement across all of the above

Methodologies, source sets, and weightings evolve; material changes are reflected on this page and on the [Sources](https://sportsindex.io/sources) page.

## 5. The AI newsroom

Each day, an AI editorial pass selects the biggest storylines from the last \~36 hours of indexed coverage and writes ranked articles **only from the sources it cites** — citations are enforced structurally, so no source means no claim. Articles are labeled as AI-generated and link every claim back to the underlying coverage. Read them at [sportsindex.io/content](https://sportsindex.io/content).

## What the metrics are not

Sports Index metrics are informational. They are not financial, betting, or recruiting advice, and they are not statements of an athlete's monetary value.