Urban Meyer vs. Nick Saban

The Sporting News recently released its annual coaches rankings, and with Ohio State having defeated Alabama in the inaugural College Football Playoffs en route to the national championship it put Urban Meyer first ahead of Nick Saban.

Considering that they've combined to win seven national titles while no other active coach has won more than one, the two clearly stand out at as college football's best.  

A significant part of doing the book Nick Saban vs. College Football, (a great Father's Day gift for under $15 -- hint, hint) was compiling statistics that couldn't be found anywhere else and doing a sort of a "Tale of the Tape" between coaches.

Decide for yourself. Here are the updated numbers for Meyer and Saban:

Nick Saban vs. Urban Meyer

Category                                                  Saban               Meyer

Seasons:                                                       19                    13

Consensus national championships:              4                      3

Record in BCS/playoff title games:              4-0                   3-0

Record in conference title games:               5-1                   3-2

Top five finishes:                                             5                      6

Top 25 finishes:                                             12                    10

Overall record:                                   177–59–1            142-26

Percentage:                                                74.9                84.5

Losing seasons:                                              0                      0

Bowl/playoff record:                                     8-8                  9-2

Percentage:                                                50.0                81.8

Conference titles:                                            6                   5-z

Conference record:                             108-40-1               84-18

Consensus All-Americans:                            25                    10

First-round draft picks:                                  22                     11

Record against ranked teams:                 56-37               29-12

Percentage:                                              60.22               70.73

Record against top 10 teams:                  28-18                 15-5

Percentage:                                              60.87               75.00

Ratios/percentages

National title seasons:                                   One every 4.75 seasons; 4.33

Consensus All-Americans (through 2014):             1.32 every season; .77

First-round draft picks (through 2015 draft):           1.16 every season; .85

Average wins vs. ranked teams:                              2.94 each season; 2.23

Wins over top-10 teams per year:                           1.47 every season; 1.15

z- Meyer won two SEC titles, two in the Mountain West and one in the Big Ten. 
Note: The methodology is the same as what was used in the book. Saban's win total includes the vacated games from the 2007 season. Ohio State was serving NCAA penalties when Meyer took over in 2012. 

Meyer's head-to-head record against Saban: 2-2