Unlike its basketball counterpart, college football has not been a sport that favors Cinderella stories. Teams exceed expectations and surprise us every season, but when it comes time to crown a champion, the schools that are in position to win it all are the ones who have recruited four- and five-star players at a high level over a five-year window.

In the College Football Playoff era, 11 of the 16 available spots have been awarded to four teams: Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State and Oklahoma. Each of these programs has recruited at or near the top of their conference and average at top-15 recruiting class in the College Football Playoff era. Additionally, the teams occupying the other five playoff bids of the era (Georgia, Florida State, Oregon, Washington and Michigan State) all fall in the top 25 of our rolling talent rankings.

Now that 2018 National Signing Day is in the books, those rankings (a five-year average of the 247Sports Composite team rankings) can be updated to give a preview of the most talented teams in college football for 2018.

These rankings are raw: They don't take player attrition, player development, transfers or other factors into consideration -- our partners at 247Sports cover that with Team Talent Composite, which is updated each August as rosters are finalized. Our goal here today is to use a snapshot of recruiting success over five cycles to establish some tiers heading into next season.

Team Conference Five-year average 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 Alabama SEC 2.2 1 1 1 1 7 Ohio State Big Ten 3.6 3 7 4 2 2 Georgia SEC 5.0 8 6 7 3 1 Florida State ACC 5.2 4 3 2 6 11 USC Pac-12 5.6 10 2 8 4 4 LSU SEC 6.4 2 5 3 7 15 Auburn SEC 9.0 6 9 9 9 12 Clemson ACC 11.6 18 8 10 16 6 Notre Dame INDIE 12.0 11 13 15 11 10 Tennessee SEC 12.4 7 4 14 17 20 Texas A&M SEC 12.8 5 11 19 12 17 Texas Big 12 13.4 17 10 11 26 3 Oklahoma Big 12 13.4 14 15 21 8 9 Florida SEC 13.4 9 21 13 10 14 Penn State Big Ten 15.6 24 14 20 15 5 Miami ACC 16.2 12 26 22 13 8 UCLA Pac-12 16.2 19 12 12 20 18 Michigan Big Ten 17.8 20 38 5 5 21 Ole Miss SEC 19.8 15 17 6 30 31 Oregon Pac-12 20.0 21 16 28 19 16 South Carolina SEC 20.2 16 19 26 21 19 Stanford Pac-12 21.2 13 24 16 14 39 Washington Pac-12 25.6 37 27 29 22 13 Michigan State Big Ten 26.6 25 22 18 36 32 Mississippi State SEC 27.0 35 18 31 24 27

Where the recent national champions (since 2010) rank: Alabama (2.2), Clemson (11.6), Ohio State (3.6), Florida State (5.2), Auburn (9.0)

Elite recruiting, no CFP appearances: USC (5.6), LSU (6.4), Auburn (9.0), Notre Dame (12.0)

Just outside the top 25: Nebraska (27.2), Arizona State (28.6), North Carolina (28.6), Virginia Tech (29.2), Baylor (29.8)