The outcome of university ranking is of much interest and concern to the many stakeholders, including university's sponsors, administrators, staff, current and prospective students, and the public. The results of rankings presented in the form of league tables, analogous to football league tables, attract more attention than do the processes by which the ranking is achieved. This article (the first of two on this topic) looks into the functioning of the indicators and their contributions to the final score used for ranking, with reference to three conceptual and methodological issues, that is, their inter-correlations, assigned and attained weights, and indicator redundancy. (Contains 10 tables.)