This is an opinion column.

The buzzards are circling and they all have microphones.

Or keyboards. Or Finebaum’s number.

Or maybe just a good friend willing to listen.

And the question — almost cliché by now — is bashing into the walls of the internet, redirecting and picking up speed for another collision.

Is this the end of Nick Saban’s dynasty at Alabama?

The more declarative “dynasty is officially dead” cousin is the new favorite after Texas pantsed the Crimson Tide in the fourth quarter of Saturday’s 34-24 loss.

Some takes are more interesting than others, but are we asking the right question?

Have we, with all due respect, considered the “dynasty” had already passed and we didn’t even realize it? We’re talking M. Night Shyamalan’s Sixth Sense over here.

Just take a moment with that.

This day was always coming.

Now let’s talk this through because the nature of a dynasty isn’t so easily defined. Most dynastic runs don’t end abruptly, rather they slowly and quietly recede back to reality. There isn’t a buzzer or even an official inauguration for the successor.

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No, this feels like the most peaceful transition of power since … well, let’s not go there.

First, we must discuss the definition of a dynasty. The dictionary definition hinges on a group that “maintains its position” of rule and that’s where the group in Athens would like a word.

Georgia’s won the last two national titles, last year’s by force over an inferior opponent after snatching the 2021 crown from the Crimson Tide. We’ll come back to this in a bit.

In terms of maintenance of its standing, Alabama’s fallen to No. 10 in the Associated Press poll for the second time in as many years. The last time it was that far from the throne? Try the 2015 season after an early-season loss to Ole Miss began that round of Alabama dynasty death conversations.

From 2021: The night Alabama’s dynasty died

The Tide went on to win three more national championships after falling to 10th in 2015. Even then, the ride felt due for a crash since nobody had maintained that level of consistency for as long as Alabama had to that point.

The last few empire-building attempts flamed out in far shorter spans.

USC had a shot in the mid-2000s but faded when SEC powers shifted the center of gravity east. Florida won two titles in three years but is the exception to the abrupt-ending clause. Don’t forget Tim Tebow & Co. were favorites entering the 2009 SEC title game against Alabama with a shot to win three BCS titles in four years. Perhaps no program’s fallen faster into Netflix fame than the Gators who swaggered into the Georgia Dome and cried on the way out of what became Alabama’s coronation instead.

That Crimson Tide group sent a message that night.

The 32-13 win marked the beginning of the “Make-their-ass-quit,” era, to quote Nick Saban. In the most respectful context, that was a nasty group of football players who not only wanted the win but they also wanted your soul. The bigger the game, the hungrier they got.

We say that to ask this: When was the last time Alabama dominated a truly capable opponent?

The 2021 SEC title game feels like the best definition here. A 41-24 beating of then-No. 1 and undefeated Georgia felt quite resounding, perhaps even a flag plant in defiance of a challenger whose coup attempts had failed miserably in recent years. That was a team that showed foundational cracks in an October loss to unranked Texas A&M but seemed to right itself at the perfect time.

Might that have been the wave’s crest?

A little more than a month later, Alabama took a thin lead in the fourth quarter of the CFP title game before Georgia sprinted away with three straight touchdowns and a 33-18 win.

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Where Alabama imposed its will to run for 301 yards against Cincinnati in the semifinal, it managed just 30 on 28 attempts against a Georgia defense built more like Alabama’s of the past. Heisman winner Bryce Young was sacked four times and intercepted twice as the Bulldogs searched for a breaking point and found it.

The closest Alabama came to dominant against SEC competition last year was probably the win over Mississippi State. The Bulldogs didn’t score until the final snap of the 30-6 loss, but Alabama’s 290 offensive yards would be a season low.

It’s just been a while since both Alabama’s offense and defense found synchronicity and forced a quality opponent to roll over and beg for a belly rub.

That, it seems, is the standard to which recent Alabama football alums have held for their predecessors over the last few years. There’s some degree of back-in-my-day to their beef and a large degree of truth.

But it’s the weight of seemingly exponential dynasty growth that’s made its continuation hard to sustain.

Time marches on, even for Saban. He’ll turn 72 next month as he faces the test of another reinvention in the age of NIL, the transfer portal and the reawakening of sleeping powers.

Texas and Tennessee are built for the future and it’s hard to ignore the recruiting momentum from two-time Saban beater Hugh Freeze at Auburn. And Georgia shows no sign of releasing its current vice grip on its recent January success.

Saban answered the critics eight years ago who said the old-school coach couldn’t keep up with the fast-paced, new-age offenses. He won those final three national titles with three different quarterbacks and a style that didn’t quite resemble 2009, 2011 or 2012.

That 2020 team could be argued as the most talented of the title teams so there’d be some poetry if Saban won his last championship in the same Miami Gardens stadium, he fled to build this goliath in Tuscaloosa.

Or maybe he’s got one final act to quiet the critics just once more.

But if we read the wind, the trends and the market, it’s hard to see the empire through the fog.

Perhaps it didn’t collapse Saturday night because it had already faded — an Irish goodbye for the ages as a new train with a familiar conductor came rolling down the tracks.

Michael Casagrande is a reporter for the Alabama Media Group. Follow him on Twitter @ByCasagrande or on Facebook.