All due respect to Mr. Jim Harbaugh at Michigan and Mr. Mark Dantonio at Michigan State.

There are two current head football coaches in the college game who are better than everyone else. In September, the New York Daily News even named it the best coaching rivalry in the history of sports.

If Alabama wins the College Football Playoff this season, Nick Saban or Urban Meyer will have claimed seven of the last 10 national championships dating back to the 2006 season.

Those two men have dominated, each winning titles at two different schools. It’s no coincidence that Saban is 2-2 against Meyer. In three of those matchups, the winner went on to a national title.

The “who’s best” discussion seemed to tip toward Meyer following the 2014 season. He’d just led Ohio State to a national championship, his third. He beat Saban and Alabama to do so, with his third-string quarterback. And he hadn’t lost a single Big Ten regular-season game in four years — until 2015.

That a single loss to Michigan State can change an entire narrative between the careers of two coaches is telling. The margin between these guys is small. But, Meyer now is 37-1 in Big Ten play. He’s got five conference championships during his career, including two in the SEC and one in the Big Ten.

Saban has six SEC titles. And he’s now hunting for his fifth national title. That would put him behind only Bear Bryant in the wire service era (since 1936). By beating Michigan State in the College Football Playoff, he could accomplish something that Meyer didn’t this season. It sounds minuscule, but not much separates these two living legends.

Let’s take a closer look at each of them.

URBAN MEYER, OHIO STATE

Record as a head coach: 153-27

Best season: 13-1 at Florida in 2008, as the Gators won a second national championship in three years behind perhaps the most talented team of the SEC championship game era. (Check out this roster; be prepared to laugh at the wealth.)

Notable player: QB Tim Tebow

The case: Meyer has lost more than three games twice in 14 seasons as a head coach. He won at Bowling Green. He won two conference titles and put together a 12-0 season that included a BCS bowl win at Utah. He won two national titles at Florida. He’s 49-4 at Ohio State in four years despite an NCAA probation hanging over the Buckeyes as he arrived.

His bizarre exit from Florida, coupled with some legal troubles from a number of high-profile players with the Gators under his watch, created a bit of a blemish on his resume, at least in the minds of some SEC fans. But only one coach can match Meyer in recruiting and as a motivator, and he’s top 5 for producing NFL talent.

Meyer is now 2-2 against Nick Saban and won a third national championship in last year’s inaugural College Football Playoff despite losing two Heisman finalist-worthy quarterbacks in the same season, giving him a compelling case for No. 1.

NICK SABAN, ALABAMA

Record as a head coach: 189-60-1 (college), 15-17 (NFL)

Best season: 14-0 at Alabama in 2009, as the Crimson Tide won its first national championship since 1992 by crushing Meyer, Tebow and the Florida Gators in the SEC championship game, ending a dynasty and bringing the country’s most famous quarterback to tears.

Notable player: WR Julio Jones

The case: Saban claims four national championships, more than any other active coach in college football. He’s won six SEC titles. He’s gone 7-1 or better in the SEC in seven of the last eight seasons at Alabama. After his first season with the Tide, Saban’s teams have finished no worse than No. 10 in the final Associated Press poll.

He also won a conference title at Toledo, turned Michigan State into a respectable program, won a championship at LSU and has a coaching tree as wild and impressive as any coach in football.

If he wins another national title or two at Alabama, he’s in the conversation with Bear Bryant as the best coach the school has ever had, and could go down as the all-time best coach in college football history.

There is no better recruiter in the country than Saban. He’s aiming for his sixth consecutive recruiting “national title.”He puts together some of the strongest coaching staffs in college football and almost never loses more than two games in a season. It’s hard to get to the top and even harder to stay there, but Saban does just that time and time again.

THE WINNER

So, who’s better?

Dan Patrick asked Meyer that very question in October: “I don’t believe I am. I believe, if I have better players, then I’m better.”

Now, asking a coach a question on a national radio show is much different than asking a coach an off-the-record inquiry behind closed doors. But, when asked whether he was a better coach than Nick Saban, Meyer’s first five words were “I don’t believe I am.”

Saban surely would’ve weaseled out of answering that question directly as well, but can you imagine that being the first sentence out of his mouth?

When it was Saban vs. Meyer in the SEC, Meyer ducked out of Gainesville, citing health concerns and leaving the program in a relative mess. Saban has done it slightly longer, and beyond his failed NFL experiment, has dominated the SEC for an unfathomable stretch.

If Saban wins a national title this year, he’ll put some distance between himself and Meyer. But Meyer is 13 years younger, so this debate hardly is settled.