The blue-chip ration has become one of the most popular college football talent metric since 247sports’ Bud Elliott coined the phrase a decade ago. The metric looks at what percentage of rosters are made up of “blue-chip” recruits as opposed to non blue-chip recruits.
A blue-chip recruit is any four or five-star. So why is it such a popular metric? Because no team in the last decade has won the national championship with a blue-chip ratio less than 50%. Having half your team rank as a blue-chip recruit has become one of the standards for looking at which teams can win a national championship.
The number of teams on the right side of the blue-chip ratio changes every year but typically sits around 15. This season, 16 different teams pass the blue-chip ratio but Tennessee is not one of them.
Tennessee has yet to pass the blue-chip ratio test in Josh Heupel’s tenure despite some strong success on the field. The Vols are sitting just on the wrong side of the ratio — Tennessee, North Carolina and Florida State were the closest without passing this year — but one more strong recruiting class could turn the tide for 2024.
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The good news for Tennessee is that its 2024 recruiting class is one of the highest blue-chip rates in the nation. According to On3, Tennessee has a 70% blue-chip ration in its 2024 recruiting class— the sixth best rate of any program.
According to the 247sports composite rankings, which Elliott uses for the blue-chip ratio, Tennessee’s 2024 recruiting class has a 75% blue-chip rate including one five-star, 14 four-stars and five three-stars.
Unless Tennessee suffers a number of de-commitments they should pass the blue-chip ratio test in 2024 for the first time in Heupel’s tenure.
The Vols’ 20 commit recruiting class ranks No. 7 nationally according to the 247sports team rankings.
One Response
I think there are more than 15 teams over the 50 percent mark.