Yes, stars matter when it comes to college football recruiting.
In the last 10 years, no team has signed more 5-stars than Alabama — a program that happens to have won five national titles during that period. When you look at teams that consistently reel in Top 10 classes and compare them to the teams that have been at or near the top of the AP Rankings the last several years, the correlation is obvious — Georgia, Alabama, Clemson, Ohio State, USC, Florida State, Auburn.
Sure, there are programs that have won with lesser talent. Take 2017 Wisconsin, whose previous three classes ranked 39th, 35th and 41st, respectively, according to 247Sports.