LOS ANGELES, Calif. (AP) — Based solely on the recruiting rankings, this nationwide championship sport between No. 1 Georgia and No. 3 TCU is essentially the most lopsided within the nine-year historical past of the College Football Playoff.

The Bulldogs are a recruiting juggernaut, brimming with four- and five-star highschool gamers.

The Horned Frogs have some blue-chippers, however they’re extra prone to depend on gamers who outperform their prospect pedigree.

“Yo, man, in football, stars don’t matter at all,” TCU star cornerback Tre Hodges-Tomlinson mentioned Saturday throughout media day for the CFP title sport. “It’s all about development once you get to college.”

The defending nationwide champion Bulldogs (14-0) face the upstart Horned Frogs (13-1) on Monday night time at Sofi Stadium in Inglewood, California. The rosters are constructed in another way in recruiting, however each groups delight themselves in participant improvement.

According the 247 Sports’ expertise composite, which makes use of recruiting scores to rank school soccer rosters, Georgia had the second-most gifted roster within the nation behind Alabama in 2022.

No shock there. Kirby Smart’s staff has been pulling in top-five ranked recruiting lessons since he returned to his alma mater as head coach in 2016. Georgia has 15 gamers who had been five-star recruits, together with All-America defensive deal with Jalen Carter, and 53 four-stars.

TCU’s roster is the thirty second most-talented within the nation, in line with the composite, proper behind Georgia Tech and Missouri and simply forward of Utah and Michigan State. The Horned Frogs’ one participant who was a five-star recruit is reserve linebacker Marcel Brooks, a switch from LSU.

The distinction in recruited expertise between Georgia and TCU is the widest for any CFP title sport matchup since 247 began its expertise composite in 2015 — and it is not even shut.

The earlier largest disparity was in 2015, when Alabama was No. 1 and Clemson was No. 13.

So Georgia is an elite recruiting program and TCU is a developmental program, proper?

“I think the truth lies somewhere in the middle,” Smart mentioned. “It’s a narrative that gets put out there. But I talk to our players about it all the time. Our best players on our team are not (necessarily) our most highly rated players.”

Quarterback Stetson Bennett is the most obvious example. A former walk-on at Georgia, Bennett left to go play at junior college before returning and becoming a Heisman Trophy finalist.

Bennett was the offensive MVP of the semifinal victory against Ohio State in the Peach Bowl. The defensive MVP was safety Javon Bullard, a three-star recruit.

What attracts the blue-chip recruits to Georgia, is the track record of developing players who end up in the NFL.

Freshman defensive tackle Bear Alexander, a four-star who played his senior year of high school at IMG Academy in Florida, said he was compelled to play college football in his home state at Texas A&M. But Georgia’s track-record for development swayed him.

Both Georgia starting defensive tackles from last year’s team, Jordan Davis and Devonte Wyatt, were first-round draft picks, and Carter has a chance to be a top-10 selection this year.

“Of course, JD, Jordan Davis was a three-star from Charlotte,” Alexander mentioned. “So just seeing the development of those guys, it kind of makes you not want to get lost in recruiting and take the developmental part more serious.”

On TCU’s roster, receiver Quentin Johnston is the player who had the most juice in recruiting, a top-100 national recruit who chose the Horned Frogs over Texas.

Quarterback Max Duggan was also a four-star recruit, one of 16 on TCU’s roster.

Both Duggan and Johnston were recruited to TCU by former coach Gary Patterson and decided to stick with the Frogs and not transfer after the school’s winningest coach was forced out at late in the 2021 season.

New Frogs coach Sonny Dykes, who coached against TCU three times in four seasons while at SMU, saw plenty to work with when he moved from Dallas to Fort Worth.

“I knew they had good players,” Dykes mentioned. “Felt like maybe they hadn’t played to their potential for whatever reason. And so it was attractive to me just because I knew there was some talent on the team.”

Hodges-Tomlinson is in some ways the epitome of what TCU soccer has been for a lot of the previous 20 years.

A former three-star recruit who was switched from security to cornerback in school and have become a star. Hodges-Tomlinson, the nephew of Pro Football Hall of Famer and TCU nice LaDainian Tomlinson, received the Thorpe Award this season as the most effective defensive again within the nation.

TCU guard Steve Avila was a three-star who redshirted as a freshman and became an All-American as a fifth-year senior.

Linebacker Dee Winter was a receiver in highschool who TCU determined could be higher off on the opposite facet of the ball. He grew into 230-pound linebacker and was defensive MVP of the Fiesta Bowl semifinal victory towards Michigan.

“It’s measurables first,” said inside receivers Doug Meacham, who was a holdover from Patterson’s staff. “I’m not sure what he is, but he’s 6-3 and 210. What is he? I don’t know. Let’s take him as an athlete and figure it out later.”

No matter what the recruiting rankings counsel, Smart is aware of what he sees on movie.

“TCU has a team full of really good football players,” he mentioned. “And I watched those guys play, and the way they play is so much more important than who wanted them out of high school. Who cares?”

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Follow Ralph D. Russo at https://twitter.com/ralphDrussoAP and hear at http://www.appodcasts.com

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AP school soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/college-football and https://twitter.com/ap_top25