One of the more important roster measuring tools was updated on Tuesday, with Bud Elliott of 247Sports releasing the 2024 version of the Blue-Chip Ratio.
The ratio measures the number of blue-chip prospects — 5-star and 4-star recruits — on a roster. Georgia once again has one of the highest percentages in all of college football, as 80 percent of its 2024 roster is made up of either 4-star or 5-star recruits.
The ratio was founded by Bud Elliott of 247Sports. Since he began tracking the ratio in 2011, every college football national champion has been above the 50 percent threshold. Georgia was at 77 percent when it won in 2022 and 80 percent when the Bulldogs first broke through in 2021.
The Blue-Chip Ratio is not a guaranteed ticket to the College Football Playoff nor is it a measure of which teams do the best job of developing players. It is simply a tool to see how much raw talent the best teams possess.
It is important to note transfers are not factored into Elliott’s rankings. No team that has won it all has been heavily reliant on transfers, with Georgia famously not taking any prior to the 2022 season. Georgia did bring in nine transfers this previous offseason. Factoring in transfers, Georgia still has a 77 percent Blue-Chip Ratio. That keeps them third overall in the sport.
Ahead of Georgia are Ohio State and Alabama. The Buckeyes come in with a 90 percent Blue-Chip Ratio, just ahead of the Crimson Tide at 88 percent. It’s not a coincidence that those two schools are at the top, given they were the top two teams in the 2021 recruiting rankings. That was the COVID recruiting cycle, and those two programs were head and shoulders above the rest of the sport when it comes to recruiting in that cycle.
That Alabama is still so high even after the retirement of Nick Saban and several prominent players transferring speaks to just how much talent is still in Tuscaloosa, Ala. First-year head coach Kalen DeBoer has plenty to work with in his first season.
Georgia will be making a visit to Alabama early in the season. The Sept. 28 matchup is the top matchup in the sport in terms of teams on Elliott’s list. Behind Georgia is Texas A&M at No. 4 with 79 percent and Oregon at 76 percent.
Of the 16 total teams that cross the 50 percent threshold, Georgia will play five. Texas is at 72 percent, followed by Clemson at 64 percent and Florida at 63 percent. All of those games come away from Sanford Stadium, as Georgia visits Texas on Oct. 19, opens with Clemson in Atlanta on Aug. 31 and faces Florida in Jacksonville, Fla., on Nov. 2.
Georgia will host Auburn on Oct. 5, with the Tigers squeaking in at 53 percent. Just missing the cut was another Georgia opponent, as Tennessee sits at 46 percent.
Thirteen of the 16 teams that meet the Blue-Chip Ratio threshold come from either the SEC or Big Ten. There are no Big 12 teams represented, while Clemson and Miami are the only ACC representatives. Notre Dame at 67 percent also made the cut.
So long as Kirby Smart remains the head coach at Georgia, the Bulldogs are likely to be a fixture on this list. Georgia has signed a top-four recruiting class in every full cycle under Smart. As of this writing, Georgia has the No. 2 ranked class for the 2025 recruiting class. Of the 15 commitments, 13 are blue-chip prospects.
A lot will have to break right for Georgia to win a third national championship in 2024. But having a roster as loaded as Georgia does entering this season gives the Bulldogs a wide margin of error and should allow the team to withstand many of the usual injuries that football racks up.
The Blue-Chip Ratio is perhaps best seen as a measure of available depth. Given Georgia annually ranks at the top of the Blue-Chip Ratio the Bulldogs have a deep enough roster to win a national championship.