17 of the first round draft was 4/5 star players (Rivals rankings). Over half. I would like to know what percentage of college football scholarship players are 4/5 star players. I would guess about 5%?
To play Devil's advocate to sd, most of the star rankings are based on measurables, which is what the NFL typically drafts on. So, it's no surprise that the correlation is high.
If a kid is freakishly big, freakishly fast, and freakishly strong, that probably won't change much after 3-5 years of college S&C.
There are only 250-300 kids in that 4/5 star range, and yes, it does make a difference if you can hoard a whole slew of them (i.e. Alabama), but for everyone outside of 10-15 schools, you need to find different ways to win, and a ton of colleges do.
So, the bottom line is that there are a lot of ways to win in college football. Hoarding 4/5 star talent is one, but it's not the only way.