Kalen DeBoer will never live this down.

He lost to Vanderbilt.

Let that sink in.

Vanderbilt.

The school the SEC lets hang around to prop up its academic and women’s bowling bona fides just beat Alabama 40-35 at home.

Crimson Tide fans who invaded Vanderbilt’s stadium watched in horror as No. 2 Alabama suffered one of its most shocking losses in program history.

Alabama lost to Vanderbilt for the first time in 40 years. DeBoer earns a résumé line that Nick Saban, Mike Shula, Dennis Franchione, Mike DuBose, Gene Stallings and Bill Curry avoided: He lost to the SEC’s brainiacs.

Saban managed to navigate past a comparable humiliation. He lost to Louisiana-Monroe in his first Alabama season. Saban went on to win six national championships at Alabama, but even so, any college football fan can recite that the GOAT lost to ULM in his first season in Tuscaloosa.

Those were different circumstances, though. Saban didn’t inherit a roster fresh off a Rose Bowl appearance. His Crimson Tide team was not ranked, when it fell to Louisiana-Monroe.

DeBoer’s squad had national championship aspirations. Those goals remain plausible, but they’re diminished after this performance.