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Bowstone Weekly — September 5, 2026

Bowstone Weekly — September 5, 2026

Sports brand intelligence, tracked where it starts.

The NFL season opens this week. Here's where AI already ranks the leagues' marquee brands

Model consensus

Which NFL franchises do AI models say are most valuable?

Ranked by how many of the four AI models named each NFL franchise

Claude · GPT-4o · Gemini · Perplexity

  1. 1Dallas Cowboys4 of 4
  2. 2Los Angeles Rams4 of 4
  3. 3New England Patriots4 of 4
  4. 4New York Giants4 of 4
  5. 5San Francisco 49ers3 of 4

5 of 6 · See the full ranking → · Frozen 2026-09-05

This Week's Signal

The WNBA's AI visibility surge is real, but the player-level gains tell a more precise story than the league number does.

The WNBA +7.3 BX → (BX Overall 70.2, WNBA BX 71.2) rose 30.6 points over seven weeks against a league cohort median of 14.8, putting its excess at 15.8 among a pool of eleven. But the league's mention share sits flat, moving from 0.973% to 1.157% over that same period, so the BX gain is being driven by social and market components rather than a pure AI volume story. The player tier is where AI share is genuinely moving: Caitlin Clark +13.7 BX → (BX Overall 60.2, WNBA BX 76.1) grew her share from 0.875% to 1.132%, a rising direction with raw counts going from 18 to 45. Sabrina Ionescu +12.8 BX → (BX Overall 29.0, WNBA BX 41.3) moved from 0.340% to 0.503%, also rising, and Angel Reese +11.6 BX → (BX Overall 27.9, WNBA BX 38.3) climbed from 0.243% to 0.428%. Three WNBA players each posting rising share in the same week is the structural story beneath the headline number.

AI Visibility by Model

Gemini gives LeBron James 17.0 points more share than Perplexity

  • 17.0 pt gap
    LeBron James — Gemini vs Perplexity

    LeBron James's mention share is falling, from 2.724% to 2.038% over seven weeks, so the model spread sits against a narrowing baseline. His Polymarket partnership with a football focus was announced September 5, per *Front Office Sports*.

  • 33.0%
    NFL on Claude

    The NFL's 33.0% Claude peak coexists with a falling share direction over seven weeks, from 4.961% to 2.642%, as the broader tracked field has expanded around it.

Index movement

Biggest BX moves vs. last week

Biggest gainers

  1. 1
    +27.0
    Nico Iamaleava
    BX 31.4
  2. 2Inter Miami CF
    +23.4
    Inter Miami CF
    BX 77.6

Biggest decliners

  1. 1CF Montréal
    -29.0
    CF Montréal
    BX 6.0
  2. 2Charlotte FC
    -17.6
    Charlotte FC
    BX 10.2
Brand vs. Market

Inter Miami CF draws 110 ranks more AI attention than its valuation predicts

AI visibility rank gap (AI rank − valuation rank) · all valued teams

Valuations: Forbes and Sportico, published Mar 2025 to Sep 2026 by league. See methodology for each league's date.

  • +110 ranks
    Inter Miami CF — AI ahead of valuation

    Inter Miami CF's gap between AI rank and valuation rank is the largest in the pool, and its share direction is flat, suggesting the gap is structural rather than this week's news.

  • −98 ranks
    Tennessee Titans — valuation ahead of AI

    Tennessee Titans -2.0 BX → (BX Overall 6.5, NFL BX 5.8) carries a $5.3bn valuation against a share rank of 133 out of 134: a large, quiet asset with no AI presence worth monitoring for brands evaluating the franchise.

  • +100 ranks
    Los Angeles FC — AI ahead

    Los Angeles FC +3.0 BX → (BX Overall 37.1, MLS BX 41.8) is misaligned by 100 ranks with a falling share direction, moving from 0.875% to 0.604% over seven weeks, so the gap is not being closed from the AI side.

One to watch

ACC

CFB
BX Overall
54.2
+14.3 this week
AI Mention Share
0.3%
CFB BX
39.3
Why this one

The ACC +14.3 BX → (BX Overall 54.2, CFB BX 39.3) has seen its mention share rise from 0.049% to 0.252% over seven weeks, a direction its cohort data confirms as rising. Its seven-week BX gain of 48.2 points sits against a league cohort median of 14.8, putting its excess at 33.4 among eleven leagues. With college football now underway, watch whether that share growth continues to compound or whether it stalls once early-season novelty settles into a steadier pattern of team-level coverage.

Bowstone tracks 443 sports entities weekly across Claude, GPT-4o, Gemini, and Perplexity. Data updates every Sunday. bowstone.ai

Bowstone tracks how AI models describe sports brands, measuring what Claude, GPT-4o, Gemini and Perplexity say when asked about teams, leagues and athletes — see the methodology, or browse every tracked entity.

Legend

Methodology →
AI Visibility
Direct ranked model selections, normalized within a published peer group.
Social Presence
Comparable social reach and movement, normalized 0–100.
BX Overall
The Bowstone Index combining eligible AI and social signals.
Peer rank
Position within the stated measured cohort and metric.
Provider positions
Question-specific stored selections, not overall provider rankings.
Want this depth on one brand?

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Trademarks and affiliation. Unless expressly stated otherwise, Bowstone is independent and is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by any team, league, conference, athlete, brand, or AI provider referenced on this site. Third-party names, trademarks, logos, and other brand identifiers are the property of their respective owners and are used for identification, comparison, commentary, and analysis. All rights in third-party marks remain with their respective owners. AI-generated responses displayed by Bowstone are outputs of third-party AI systems and do not constitute endorsements of Bowstone, its analysis, or its rankings by the applicable AI provider or by any entity measured.