When people make the argument that recruiting ratings don’t mean anything, all you need to do is show them this stat. Every national championship team since 2011 has had a Blue-Chip Ratio over 50 Percent.
Simply put, the Blue-Chip Ratio is the number of former two and three-star players on a team compared to the number of four and five-stars. With Clemson football looking to jump back into the national championship conversation, it’s a good thing that it has a Blue-Chip Ratio of 64 percent, according to Bud Elliot of CBS Sports.
In his piece about teams in 2024 with the desired Bule-Chip Ratio, Elliot walks through which teams have a legitimate shot at winning a national championship. Clemson comes in with the tenth-highest ratio in the country and the highest in the ACC. Miami comes next with 61 percent, and Florida State barely misses the cut with 49 percent, although it makes the list when factoring in transfers.
When the Tigers won the national championship in 2016, they were just above the mark with 52 percent. However, in 2018, Clemson had a ratio of 68 percent, with all four college football participants above the 50 percent mark that season.
Here are all the teams with a Blue-Chip Ratio above 50 percent.
| Ohio State | 90% |
| Alabama | 88% |
| Georgia | 80% |
| Texas A&M | 79% |
| Oregon | 76% |
| Oklahoma | 73% |
| Texas | 72% |
| LSU | 70% |
| Notre Dame | 67% |
| Clemson | 64% |
| Florida | 63% |
| Miami | 61% |
| Penn State | 61% |
| USC | 59% |
| Michigan | 56% |
| Auburn | 53% |