I don't normally pay attention to recruiting classes. Do these rankings ever correlate to any real success?
Absolutely.
There's this fairly new metric called 'blue chip ratio' that pretty much aligns with teams' on field success.
Blue chip ratio is the percentage of 4 and 5 star recruits that make up a team's total roster over a 4 year recruiting period. Teams that have a blue chip ratio of 50% or higher are considered elite and legit title contenders. Teams who have a ratio of under 50% can pretty much be written off.
It's a pretty exclusive group in that +50% territory. Normally there are only 10-15 teams who reach the mark and every year teams from that group of teams have been involved in the CFB playoffs or BCS title game.
Below are the 16 teams from the 2019 season whose rosters were comprised of at least 50% 4& 5 star recruits.
Since it's from the 2019 season, these percentages are showing the percentage of each team's roster from 2016-2019 that are 4 and 5 star recruits.
Ohio State | 81% |
Alabama | 80% |
Georgia | 79% |
LSU | 64% |
Florida State | 61% |
Clemson | 60% |
USC | 60% |
Penn State | 60% |
Michigan | 60% |
Texas | 60% |
Oklahoma | 60% |
Auburn | 58% |
Washington | 54% |
Notre Dame | 54% |
Florida | 53% |
Miami | 51% |
Here's some other good information on it if anyone is interested.
Blue-Chip Ratio 2019