Now that Nick Saban has retired after 17 seasons as Alabama’s head football coach, we can finally “settle” the debate that has been raging for years.

How does the career of Saban compare to that of Paul “Bear” Bryant, the Crimson Tide’s legendary coach from 1958-82? Before we give our final verdict, here are the two coaches’ resumes:

Paul “Bear” Bryant

Nick Saban

Bryant obviously has the edge in volume, but Saban has an advantage when it comes to percentages. Let’s provide a little context to those numbers, shall we? (Some of this was previously published when we did a similar “tale of the tape” after Saban won his fourth national title at Alabama at the end of the 2015 season.)

The case for Bryant:

* He won multiple championships in two distinct eras of college football: the single platoon, pre-integration era of the early 1960s, and the free-substitution, post-integration era of the 1970s.

* He had, in effect, two dynasties at Alabama: 1960-67 and 1971-80. Few coaches in history have reversed course and started winning big again when it looked like their program was in decline, as Bryant’s certainly was in 1969 and 1970.

* Much of the “program infrastructure” at Alabama by which Saban benefited — fan and booster enthusiasm, administrative support, national and regional prestige — exists because of Bryant’s success in Tuscaloosa.

* Bryant had a few “uncrowned” teams, notably 1966, 1974 and 1977, all of which would have had a chance to win national titles under the modern system. So had he been around for the BCS or College Football Playoff, Bryant might have won as many as nine national championships.

The case for Saban:

* He won three national championships in four years from 2009-12 and four in seven years from 2009-15 and again from 2011-17. Bryant’s best runs were four championships in 13 years (1961, 1964, 1965 and 1973) and three in five years (1961, 1964, 1965).

* It’s more difficult to win a national championship in the modern era. For one thing, Saban couldn’t win a national title despite losing a bowl game, as Bryant’s 1964 and 1973 teams did. Saban also had to beat the No. 1, No. 2 or No. 3 team for each of his seven championships (not to mention multiple top 4 teams in the playoff for the last three of his titles). Bryant won a few titles by beating a lesser team, then having No. 1 or No. 2 lose in a different bowl game.

* There are also no shared SEC championships these days. Saban’s nine SEC titles all have come in outright fashion. Bryant shared in three of his 14 league crowns, and a few others came in years in which not every SEC team played the same number of conference games. Bryant also never had to face a potentially top-ranked opponent in the SEC championship game, as Saban did multiple times.

* There are much greater restrictions on recruiting classes, squad sizes and practice time in current-day college football. Bryant also never had to deal with headaches such as the transfer portal or name, image and likeness.

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Once the two coaches’ careers are broken down that way, Saban appears to have a pretty significant edge. Bryant’s resumé exceeds just about any coach in history, except one.

You can’t go wrong with either one, but in our final call, Nick Saban is the greatest coach in Alabama football history. Not that there’s any shame in second place.

Creg Stephenson has worked for AL.com since 2010 and has covered college football for a variety of publications since 1994. Contact him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter/X at @CregStephenson.