Pundits say the only way to judge a recruiting class is how it finishes — freshman year to fifth-year senior, with a redshirt season thrown in for good measure.

Sometimes, mega-hyped five-star recruits fizzle and transfer to a lower level.

Sometimes, the guys who enter with zero fanfare are the ones filling their trophy cases with hardware.

It can work with conferences, too.

Five years ago, most college football observers predicted the ACC’s ascent into college football’s elite after it plundered the Big East for Boston College, Miami and Virginia Tech.

Instead, the league has been stuck in neutral, a prime topic of the ACC Football Kickoff, which opened Sunday afternoon at Reynolds Plantation.

Over the last three seasons, the league has produced 25 NFL first-round draft picks — most in America — but all that elite-level talent hasn’t translated to national success.

The ACC still has not had an at-large Bowl Championship Series entry, and its champion hasn’t won a BCS game since 1999, when Florida State beat then-Big East member Virginia Tech for the national title.

Meanwhile, the league the ACC hoped to emulate — the SEC — has become the nation’s best, winning the last two national titles and five BCS games since ACC expansion.

Virginia Tech has lived up to expectations, winning its first ACC title last season before dropping the Orange Bowl to Kansas.

Boston College has been a solid addition, making its first ACC championship game appearance in 2007 and being a general thorn in Clemson’s side (although the loss of quarterback Matt Ryan and others will hurt badly).

Miami, however, has been an absolute bust, going from nine wins in its first ACC season to an ugly 5-7 mark last fall, including a 48-0 whipping in its last game at the once-fearsome Orange Bowl.

Florida State’s decline from perennial power to consecutive 7-6 seasons has hurt badly, too.

Imagine this: once you get past Clemson (a consensus top-10 team) and the Hokies, the ACC’s third-best team is — gulp — Wake Forest.

Sure, the Deacs have won 20 games over the last two years. Yes, Jim Grobe turned down $2.2 million from Arkansas last December.

But in the nation’s eyes, Wake Forest is still Wake Forest. When a historical doormat is your league’s third-best team, your league is in trouble.

The ACC wants more than anything for its football to equal its basketball and baseball prowess.

Maybe this is the year Clemson breaks through and helps its league-mates with its first league title since 1991 and a BCS bowl win.

Maybe the ACC lives up to its own hype.

After all, this is expansion’s fifth anniversary.

It’s time for commissioner John Swofford’s heist to fulfill its promise with mature rivalries and, more importantly, January success.

Otherwise, the “parity” league players and coaches speak of will just keep sounding like sour grapes.