For the last eight seasons, including again in 2025, Oklahoma has been one of a select group of college teams with enough elite talent on its roster to have the best chance of winning the national championship, according to CBS Sports.
The 2025 CBS Sports Blue-Chip Ratio ranked the Sooners one of 18 teams with a chance to win this season's national championship based on a roster that is composed of 70% five- and four-star recruits over the previous four recruiting cycles.
The top BCR score heading into the 2025 season belonged to Alabama and Ohio State, both at 89%. No. 3 Georgia (84%) and No. 4 Texas A&M (82%) were the only other teams above 80%. Four SEC teams (Alabama, Georgia, No. 6 Texas and No. 7 LSU) were ranked ahead of the Sooners.
Sooners among 18 teams with enough talent to content
Thirteen years ago, in 2013, Bud Elliot of CBS Sports developed a metric for assessing college football teams' chances of winning a national championship based on the percentage of their roster made up of five- and four-star recruits compared to players rated as two- and three-stars. The resulting percentage is called the Blue-Chip Ratio.
The blue-chip baseline percentage for a team with an actual chance of winning a national championship is 50%. None of the past 14 national champions have had a Blue-Chip Ratio below 50%. Clemson was the lowest at 52% in 2016.
Transfers are not included in the BCR calculation, but if they were, Oklahoma's Blue-Chip Ratio for the coming season would be 56%, dropping the Sooners to 12th in Elliot's ranking of the 2025 national title contenders based on talent mix alone. With transfers included, six other SEC teams would rank above the Sooners.
According to the Blue-Chip Ratio metric, Oklahoma has had enough talent on its roster over the past few seasons to compete for a championship. It just hasn't translated to enough quality wins despite three consecutive top-10 recruiting classes and the BCR for Brent Venables' first three OU seasons not being lower than 70%.
Oklahoma's highest Blue-Chip Ratio over the last eight seasons was 73% in 2024, the sixth-best among FBS teams. The Sooners' lowest BCR over that period was 53% in 2018.
We all know that talent isn't the only factor that contributes to a national championship. Coaching, culture, player development and health also play a role, as CBS Sports' Elliot points out, but none are more important than talent acquisition when it comes to separating the good teams from the elite teams.
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