The College Football Playoff is 6 years into its existence. There has been 24 teams that have made the College Football playoff. I looked at the rosters of all 24 teams to see what similarities or variables there were on each roster. I concluded four things are most likely to have a college football playoff roster.
1) No team that has had roster talent outside of the top 25 for that season has ever made the college football playoff. So it is safe to assume ,after a 6 year sample size, that it is highly unlikely for a roster without top 25 talent to make the college football playoff.
2) Only 3 teams (2015 Oklahoma and Michigan State & 2016 Washington) had less than 30 blue chip players (4 or 5 star players) on their roster.
3) Only 5 teams ( the three above & 2014 Oregon & 2017 Oklahoma) had less than 10 top 100 rated players on their rosters.
4) Only four teams (the initial three above) & 2018 Notre Dame had less than 2 five stars on their roster. Washington is the only playoff roster that did not have at least one five star.
So going into next year these rosters have most likely components to make a college football playoff run.
– Alabama (#1 rated roster, 74 blue chip players, 32 top 100 players and 12 five stars)
-Georgia (#2 rated roster, 64 blue chip players, 31 top 100 rated players, and 13 five stars )
-Ohio State (#3 rated roster, 62 blue chip players, 28 top 100 players, and 13 five stars)
-Clemson (#4 rated roster, 49 blue chip players, 21 top 100 player, and 11 five stars)
-LSU (#5 rated roster, 55 blue chip players, 22 top 100 players, and 7 five stars)
-Texas (#6 rated roster, 54 blue chip players, 16 top 100 players, and 4 five stars)
-Florida (#7 rated roster, 52 blue chip players, 15 top 100 players, and 4 five stars)
-Oklahoma (#8 rated roster, 52 blue chip players, 12 top 100 players, and 5 five stars)
-Texas A&M (#9 rated roster, 51 blue chip players, 17 top 100 rated players, and 4 five stars)
-USC (#10 rated roster, 40 blue chip players, 16 top 100 players, and 6 five stars)
-Penn State (#11 rated roster, 51 blue chip players, 15 top 100 players, and 2 five stars)
-Oregon (#13 rated roster, 39 blue chip players, 14 top 100 players, and 4 five stars)
-Tennessee (#15 rated roster, 39 blue chip players, 13 top 100 players, and 5 five stars)
-Florida State (#16 rated roster, 36 blue chip players, 11 top 100 players, and 3 five stars)
There are 14 rosters that fit the criteria that have been most successful of getting into the college football playoff since 2014.
Tyler Turner is a contributor to The Sports Cast. Tyler covers all things college football: coaching searches, recruiting, etc. I also cover College basketball, Boxing, Tennis, Golf, and NFL.