Blue chip (sports)

Blue chips are athletes, particularly high school players, targeted for drafting or signing by teams at the college level.

Blue chip athletes are likely to have an immediate impact on teams that acquire them[4] and have proven skills rather than speculative or untapped potential.

[6][7][8] According to Elliott, the Blue-Chip Ratio has been referenced by all major broadcast networks and is closely monitored by head coaches and administrators.

He posits that a team with 45-49% BCR, a transcendent QB, and great injury luck could eventually win a national championship.

He has cited 2014 Oregon, 2015 Clemson, 2021 Cincinnati, 2022 TCU, and 2023 Florida State as examples of teams that came close to winning it all despite having a BCR less than 50%.

while I am confident that Auburn did meet the threshold when I was back-testing the model a half-decade ago, I can no longer back it up with proof.

"[17] Although the expanded twelve-team College Football Playoff will allow greater access to the playoff for less talented teams, the expansion will also require those less talented teams to win three or even four difficult games to win the national championship, possibly making it even more difficult for them to bust the ratio.

[21] The following are lists of all the teams that had enough talent to win the national championship (BCR of 50% or higher) in recent seasons.

Many Blue-Chip Ratios prior to 2014 are unreliable or unavailable, due to a lack of articles listing them, errors or discrepancies in older recruiting rankings, etc.