LSU-Alabama is the best rivalry.

How do we know this?

We’re just 2 sentences in, and already people are getting on social media to argue about whether it’s the LSU-Alabama rivalry or the Alabama-LSU rivalry.

In fact, some Crimson Tide followers are questioning whether it’s even a rivalry, invoking the old “it’s not a rivalry when 1 team wins all the time” mantra and noting that Bama has won 10 of the past 11 meetings.

Tigers fans will counter with … well, actually, they don’t have much to counter that reality with right now. But rest assured that as soon as LSU wins, like, 2 consecutive matchups, they’ll be the ones questioning whether it really is a rivalry.

In the meantime, next Saturday in Tiger Stadium, Brian Kelly takes his 1st crack at beating the Tide since becoming the Tigers’ head coach.

He had a couple of shots at Bama while he was at Notre Dame, and things didn’t go real well.

In the national championship game of the 2012 season, the Tide rolled over the Fighting Irish 42-14. In a CFP semifinal 2 seasons ago, the Tide rolled over the Fighting Irish 31-14.

Bama fans will say Kelly was a glutton for punishment for accepting the LSU job, knowing he would get more of the same from the Tide — only in every season instead of only occasionally.

LSU fans will say Kelly was smart, knowing he’d never be able to put together a Notre Dame team capable of beating Alabama — and therefore likely to never win a national championship there — but that he would be able to put together a Tigers team capable of beating the Tide on its way to winning a national championship, just as Ed Orgeron did in 2019, Les Miles did in 2007 and Nick Saban did in 2003.

And speaking of Saban, this is where we get to the biggest reason that the LSU-Alabama/Alabama-LSU rivalry is the best.

Saban was the guy who rebuilt the Tigers’ program into one that could compete with Alabama, that could win national championships.

When Saban arrived in Baton Rouge from Michigan State in 2000, LSU had won just 6 of its previous 29 games against Alabama.

Saban immediately won his first 2 games against the Tide and 4 of 5 during his tenure. Along the way, he brought LSU its 1st national championship in 45 years.

The national championship was nice — really nice — but not all that more significant than exorcising all those ghosts of losses to Bear Bryant and finally putting LSU above Bama.

Tigers fans loved that. That’s the kind of stuff that makes great rivalries.

And Saban’s role as a hero-villain and a villain-hero to both sides is what sets this rivalry apart.

A year after Saban brought that national championship to Baton Rouge, he wanted to try his hand as an NFL head coach and joined the Miami Dolphins. He left the Tigers in pretty good shape, and they brought in Miles from Oklahoma State to build on what Saban had started.

While Saban was at LSU, Alabama had just 2 winning seasons, and 1 of them ended in the Independence Bowl for crying out loud.

But Saban lasted just 2 years in the NFL while Bama was getting tired of its mediocrity.

Meanwhile, Miles’ 1st LSU team finished 11-2 and ranked No. 6, and his 2nd team finished 11-2 and ranked No. 3 as the Tigers were building toward a national championship in Miles’ 3rd season.

So when Saban was looking for a place to land in college football, LSU was already set. Bama wasn’t.

The Tide hired Saban. And 15 years and 6 national championships later, Tigers fans can’t help but wonder what they might have accomplished if Saban had remained their coach.

Each time Alabama beats LSU, or wins a national championship, or wins practically any big game — it’s a reminder to Tigers fans of what Saban left and what Saban has built with LSU’s biggest rival.

Saban never chose Alabama over LSU. He chose the NFL over LSU. He never had a choice between LSU and Alabama.

In fact, he has famously said that his biggest regret in coaching was leaving LSU.

But when Saban’s NFL opportunity fizzled, Bama needed a coach, and LSU didn’t.

In some quarters, the bitterness toward Saban seems as strong as it would be if he actually had spurned the Tigers for the Tide.

Alabama fans can argue that LSU had the best coach in college football (perhaps in college football history) and couldn’t keep him. And even though he didn’t leave directly for the Tide, he did leave Baton Rouge after just 5 seasons and has stayed in Tuscaloosa for 16 — and counting.

LSU fans can argue that Bama lucked into its coach only because the Tigers didn’t need a new head coach the way the Tide did when Saban went looking for a return to the college ranks. And they can argue that Saban wasn’t who he has become until the opportunity in Baton Rouge made him into who he has become.

When these teams meet for the 85th time next week, the winner will control its fate in trying to win the SEC West.

But there’s a lot more than that going on here.

It’s the best.