2024 college football rankings: RJ Young's ultimate 100 CFB superstars

As college football grows increasingly transactional in this day and age, identifying bona fide stars on the field has taken on new urgency. 

In the past, players like Caleb Williams, Baker Mayfield, Lamar Jackson and DeVonta Smith have emerged as the kind of no-doubt superstars that you not only build viewing schedules around, but you build marketing campaigns around. That kind of dual-threat star power, both on and off the field, is more important than ever.

[Read more: 2024 college football rankings: RJ Young's Ultimate 134 ]

What follows is a reflection of who those superstars are right now in college football; a list of 100 players I'd select, in this order, with which to start a college football team. These are the players I'd take to lead and represent my team because they possess the necessary popularity and playmaking ability to earn interest from college football fans across the country. They draw TV viewers, generate NIL dollars, and drive social media trends. They excite hardcore fans, delight wealthy donors and attract blue-chip recruits. 

They are superstars.

If your team does not have a player on this list, your general manager — yes, those exist now in college football — needs to tell you how he's going to fix it. This is paramount. 

College football represents change, and the competition is chaos. The game itself is played under lights, with a vision of the night sky. If you squint, you can see stars. But a nova, exploding star, a bangarang belly of celestial cosmic charisma and skill, needs not your sight. You will feel its heat on your face, and its glow will bring joy to yours. They are rare. They are few. They are defined by their power and pinnacle.

While college football fans clamor to see