This came out yesterday per a service I will not mention or link. These rankings reflect the actual recruited players on rosters right now for all FBS teams in the country. You can throw NIL, transfer portal or whatever in the trash can as this reflects the talent in each program across the whole roster as a composite of Rivals/ESPN/247 rankings of each player as a prospect. Blue chippers are 4 or 5 star rated prospects.
#1 Bama
#2 UGA (65 blue chippers among its 85 players)
#3 Ohio St
#4 Texas (replaces A&M as a team ahead of Clemson)
#5 Clemson (52 blue chippers among 82 recruited scholarship players)
#6 Oregon
#7 Texas A&M
#8 Oklahoma
#9 LSU
#10 ND
#11 Penn St.
#12 Florida
#13 FSU
#14 Miami
#15 SC
#16 Michigan
Others of interest- UofSC #21, UNC #22, NCSU #40, Stanford #42, GT #46, Syracuse #48
If you care to look at Clemson going back to 2015 and the first CFP/Natty game squad with roster rank and # of blue chippers each year:
2015 #13 33 blue chippers
2016 #9 39
2017 #9 40
2018 #6 46
2019 #9 40
2020 #4 46
2021 #5 50
2022 #5 51
2023 #5 56
2024 #5 52
A few of my takeaways:
- You can identify a few underachieving talented rosters such as TAMU, Florida, Miami and Southern Cal. (And Clemson the last 3 years sadly after overachieving in earlier years.)
- Clemson folk whine and gnash our teeth over NIL, transfer portal, roster management, 5 hearts, "how Dabo does things", whatever, etc. , but Clemson has a very talented roster at the end of the day. Top 5 dadgum it. I believe NIL and transfer portal are less of factors than thought because of Clemson's strength commonly overlooked by media, the lazy, and the naive. That is- Clemson is tops in the land at retaining its best upperclassmen players.
- King Solomon wrote a few times in Ecclesiastes, "There is nothing new under the sun." NIL is not new, just has a new name.
- UGA's and Clemson's talent is not that far apart. It is about QB play and turnovers and maybe some coaching and schemes and key team leadership and making a key play when you need it. Clemson is capable talent wise.
- I repeatedly read from posters on this board about Clemson's talent fading and will never be the same due to NIL and the transfer portal. Really? Numbers show differently to date.
- Your thoughts?
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#1 Bama
#2 UGA (65 blue chippers among its 85 players)
#3 Ohio St
#4 Texas (replaces A&M as a team ahead of Clemson)
#5 Clemson (52 blue chippers among 82 recruited scholarship players)
#6 Oregon
#7 Texas A&M
#8 Oklahoma
#9 LSU
#10 ND
#11 Penn St.
#12 Florida
#13 FSU
#14 Miami
#15 SC
#16 Michigan
Others of interest- UofSC #21, UNC #22, NCSU #40, Stanford #42, GT #46, Syracuse #48
If you care to look at Clemson going back to 2015 and the first CFP/Natty game squad with roster rank and # of blue chippers each year:
2015 #13 33 blue chippers
2016 #9 39
2017 #9 40
2018 #6 46
2019 #9 40
2020 #4 46
2021 #5 50
2022 #5 51
2023 #5 56
2024 #5 52
A few of my takeaways:
- You can identify a few underachieving talented rosters such as TAMU, Florida, Miami and Southern Cal. (And Clemson the last 3 years sadly after overachieving in earlier years.)
- Clemson folk whine and gnash our teeth over NIL, transfer portal, roster management, 5 hearts, "how Dabo does things", whatever, etc. , but Clemson has a very talented roster at the end of the day. Top 5 dadgum it. I believe NIL and transfer portal are less of factors than thought because of Clemson's strength commonly overlooked by media, the lazy, and the naive. That is- Clemson is tops in the land at retaining its best upperclassmen players.
- King Solomon wrote a few times in Ecclesiastes, "There is nothing new under the sun." NIL is not new, just has a new name.
- UGA's and Clemson's talent is not that far apart. It is about QB play and turnovers and maybe some coaching and schemes and key team leadership and making a key play when you need it. Clemson is capable talent wise.
- I repeatedly read from posters on this board about Clemson's talent fading and will never be the same due to NIL and the transfer portal. Really? Numbers show differently to date.
- Your thoughts?
-