For consumers facing an increasing number of options, determining value is an ever-more complex, but important, exercise.

Ticket sales in college football dropped for the fifth consecutive year. Within the SEC specifically, half the programs experienced a decline in attendance.

Prices, meanwhile, continue to be cost-prohibitive for many families. The median ticket price for home games in the SEC last season was more than $125. Take an family of four to an average game in ’15 and you’re paying $500 just for the tickets — that’s before parking, concessions, gas and memorabilia.

Tixers.com calculated the average home ticket price for each SEC team last year. Georgia was by far the most expensive ticket, while Alabama (No. 5) and Florida (No. 11) came in lower than some may expect.

At $78.74, Vanderbilt’s ticket prices were much cheaper than the Tide’s. But watching the Commodores lose at home to Western Kentucky couldn’t have provided as much value for fans as Bama’s exciting victory against a Tennessee team that finished the season ranked.

SEC fans don’t seem to mind paying high dollar to watch their team play at least once or twice. But who is getting the best value?

To find that, we divided the average cost of home tickets by the number of home wins. Home games do not include neutral-site games such as Arkansas-Texas A&M or Florida-Georgia.

Here’s how those numbers shook out in terms of average price per home win in ’15:

Scale — (Average home ticket price x number of games)/number of home wins = value

  • 14. Auburn — $1,347.50/3 = $449.17
  • 13. South Carolina — $833.94/2 = $416.97
  • 12. Tennessee — $1499.05/5 = $299.81
  • 11. Georgia — $1,432.20/5 = $286.44
  • 10. Texas A&M — $1,288.77/5 = $257.75
  • 9. Missouri — $723.12/3 = $241.04
  • 8. Kentucky — $854.48/4 = $213.62
  • 7. Arkansas — $838.74/4 = $209.69
  • 6. Alabama — $1,193.64/6 = $198.94
  • 5. LSU — $1,032.29/6 = $172.05
  • 4. Mississippi State — $685.23/4 = $171.31
  • 3. Vanderbilt — $472.44/3 = $157.48
  • 2. Ole Miss — $781.41/6 = $130.24
  • 1. Florida — $752.01/6 = $125.34

Benefitting from lower-than-expected ticket prices and a 6-1 home record, Florida offered the best value of any SEC team last fall. The Gators won 10 games and won the SEC East in Jim McElwain’s first season, a surprise achievement.

Ole Miss, another team with a strong season (Sugar Bowl win), finished just behind Florida.

SEC West preseason favorite Auburn barely reached 6-6 in the regular season, and that’s reflected here. Tigers fans had to pay about $450 per home victory, on average.

Despite decent seasons, Tennessee and Georgia fans didn’t get great value due. The Vols (No. 2) and Bulldogs (No. 1) represented the most expensive tickets in the SEC last fall.

But again, it’s unfair to treat every home win equally.

This is about value to you as fans. SEC wins mean more than beating non-conference opponents, and top 25 wins mean more than victories against unranked teams.

With that in mind, let’s adjust the scale.

  • Victory vs. team in final AP top 25 = 2
  • Victory vs. unranked SEC team = 1.5
  • Victory vs. unranked non-conference team = 1
  • Single-digit loss vs. ranked team = 0.5
  • 14. Auburn — $1,347.50/3.5 = $385.00
  • 13. South Carolina — $833.94/3 = $277.98
  • 12. Texas A&M — $1,288.77/6 = $214.80
  • 11. Tennessee — $1499.05/7 = $214.15
  • 10. Missouri — $723.12/3.5 = $206.61
  • 9. Georgia — $1,432.20/7.5 = $190.96
  • 8. Kentucky — $854.48/5 = $170.90
  • 7. Arkansas — $838.74/5 = $167.75
  • 6. Alabama — $1,193.64/9 = $132.63
  • 5. LSU — $1,032.29/8 = $129.04
  • 4. Vanderbilt — $472.44/4 = $118.11
  • 3. Mississippi State — $685.23/6.5 = $105.42
  • 2. Ole Miss — $781.41/8 = $97.70
  • 1. Florida — $752.01/8.5 = $88.47

You’ll notice that the numbers didn’t change much. Georgia (+2) and Texas A&M (-2) were the only two schools to move multiple spots in the rankings.

Again, Gators fans win out here. Ben Hill Griffin was a terrific venue in which to watch SEC football in 2015 if you were looking for value. That’s despite a loss to No. 14 Florida State to end the regular season. Florida managed to go 3-0 against SEC teams at home, including a 38-10 trouncing of then-No. 3 Ole Miss and a 28-27 victory against a Tennessee team that finished the season ranked No. 22.

Ole Miss also treated the home fans, even though the Rebels’ most notable victory came at Alabama. Coach Hugh Freeze managed a 6-1 record at home, including stompings of then-No. 15 Texas A&M and then-No. 15 LSU. Ole Miss’ only home loss came in arguably the most entertaining SEC game of the entire season, a 53-52 defeat to Arkansas courtesy of a fluky fourth-and-25 conversion.

Alabama scored the most points on our modified scale, notching wins against ranked Tennessee and LSU teams as well as a close loss against Ole Miss.

Looking just at the results side of the equation, South Carolina offered the weakest outcomes. The Gamecocks beat an 0-12 UCF team and Vanderbilt while losing to Kentucky, Florida, Clemson — and The Citadel. South Carolina fans may not have been grateful that the scheduled game against LSU got moved to Death Valley due to flooding, but it helped the team avoid another home loss. After being perfect at home with Connor Shaw at quarterback (17-0 record), the program would love to recapture some magic in 2016 at Williams-Brice Stadium.

Auburn and Missouri weren’t much better at home.

Overall, these numbers only represent one season. But it proves that if your team is one of the SEC’s traditional powerhouses, and it doesn’t perform well at home, you’re shelling out a lot of hard-earned cash without much return.

Win just a few games at Vanderbilt and tickets are cheap enough that you’re providing good bang for the buck. But struggle at a place like Tennessee and you’re charging fans stacks of cash just to watch you lose to Oklahoma and Arkansas.

A few of the teams at the bottom of this list also feature head coaches with questionable job status beyond 2016. Gus Malzahn and Kevin Sumlin would do well to make sure their teams perform at home this fall.