College football is not a sport of parity.

Bluebloods and classic powers rule the sport. Since the BCS era began in 1998, only 12 teams have won a national championship. If you want a 50-year scope, from 1968 to now, you’d add only nine more champions. That’s 21 different title winners in 50 years of play. In the same time span, the NFL can claim 20 despite a fraction of Division 1's total number of teams (32 vs. 130).

That’s not an apples to apples comparison. We’ll let new Arizona State head coach Herm Edwards, a long-time NFL head man, explain the difference.

"Signing Day is a little bit unusual for me, because in pro football, you get to draft them. In college, they get to pick you!” Edwards said on ESPN.

And more than ever, the top talent is opting to flock to a select group of schools.

There were 29 247Sports Composite five-star prospects in the 2018 class, but that group distributed itself among just 10 teams. That’s 2.9 five-stars per team that managed to sign one, which is the highest total since 2010, the year 247Sports began ranking players and a more balanced set of data funneled into the Composite.

For perspective, there have never been fewer than 13 teams in a single cycle to sign a five-star prospect before 2018. The 2.9 five-stars per school also crushed the previous high of 2.54, which was set the cycle before in 2017. This talent hoarding led to the four of the five highest rated classes in history by average prospect ranking being landed the last two cycles, including Nos. 2-4 this year (Ohio State, Georgia and USC).

Georgia landed a record-setting seven five-star prospects coming off its national title game loss.

This isn’t a new trend. As one can see in the championship distribution, powerhouses have always had the best players. Recruiting rankings do matter, and the schools with a winning history, the best coaches and top facilities usually get the creme dela crème of talent.

But as the last two years of recruiting have shown, we’re trending toward less parity than ever.

Only two teams in the 2018 cycle (LSU, Texas) managed to land a five-star prospect without finishing in the top 10 of the final College Football Playoff rankings. More than that, the four schools to land in the playoffs (Clemson, Oklahoma, Alabama, Georgia) signed 51.7 percent of the available five-star prospects. That number sat at 39 percent in the 2017 cycle when Alabama, Ohio State and Clemson combined to land 13 of 33 five-star prospects.

So why does all of this even matter?

Schools don’t win national championships without at least a single five-star prospect on their roster. You don’t even get to the title game without one. There’s a reason why schools like Oregon, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Baylor, Michigan State and South Carolina have each made appearances in the national consciousness this decade. Each school had an energizing coach, found a little success and then recruited well for a stretch. As it happens, all six of those programs managed to land at least one five-star prospect between 2010 and 2015.

Five-stars are a sign of health for a school.

Right now, some programs are much healthier than others. Alabama, owner of five national championships in 10 years, has signed a staggering eight percent of available five-star prospects since 2010. There's a reason why the Crimson Tide seem to be on top nearly every year; they've cornered the market on the choice prospects.

And as the 2017 and 2018 results show, the gap between the college football elite and everyone else is widening.

Between the 2017 and 2018 classes, Georgia (16.1%), Alabama (12.9%), Clemson (11.29%) and Ohio State (12.9%) accounted for 53.19 percent of all available five-star prospects. That four-team group represents the three champions of the CFB Playoff era (Alabama, Clemson and Ohio State) and the team that finished a single overtime stop away from joining that group (Georgia).

Bluebloods and champions will always hoard top talent. It’s the way of recruiting. But there is more domination than ever at the top of the food chain.

Let’s not pretend college football’s ever been a sport of the underdog. If you want that, then NCAA basketball is your game. Yet, there’s always been an element of hope for programs hoping to build upward. It’s not impossible. Clemson managed to catapult itself up into this category under Dabo Swinney. Georgia, too, is an elevated power under Kirby Smart.

But those were champions before. They will likely be champions again due to their ability to recruit. It's harder than ever for a new contender to crack that elite tier. Kids want to play for the best and compete for championships. At this moment, they seem to be considering fewer schools than ever in an attempt to do so. So don't expect much change at the top in college football come the 2018 season.

The sport's talent acquisition deadline has past, and kids are flocking to the same schools who've always won.