Class Rankings: Hype or Reality?

Interestingly enough ... Rivals has rated #Hokies recruiting class No. 22 or No. 23 in the country 5 of the past 6 years. This year: No. 22.— Hokies Journal (@HokiesJournal) February 5, 2014

First off, I'm not a huge recruiting follower. But from what I've read here, it seems like this year's recruiting class looks pretty good, and the recruiting classes from a couple years ago (especially on offense) really contributed to the lackluster showings of the past 2 seasons. According to Rivals, however, this years class is just more of the same. Now we all know that 2 and 3 star kids can become very important players, and that 5 star kids can bust; this isn't a question about star rankings. However, I'm sure many of us on the site would love for VT to constantly be in the top 10 or 15, especially in years like this when a lot of talent is coming out of Virginia. Why do we, as a fanbase, place so much importance on our recruiting class rankings (and the individual players) when we can see that preseason rankings don't mean anything in terms of how good a team will actually be (*cough* 2012 USC *cough*)? They both rank and project future success on previous accomplishments, but recruiting class rankings don't even have the benefit of college film!

My main question is this: which arbitrary ranking do you think is more misleading and/or less accurate, and which one do you care about more?