The Giants have not given their fans much to celebrate the last four years, but now Giants fans can celebrate themselves.

Giants fans make up the NFL's sixth-best fan base, according to a study published by Michael Lewis, a marketing professor and sports analytics expert out of Emory College in Atlanta.

The rankings are devised using a method called "Dynamic Fan Equity," according to the study. A explanation of the methodology can be found in italics at the bottom of this post.

The Giants' No. 6 ranking is not good enough for first place in the NFC East, though. Or even second place. The Dallas Cowboys are ranked second, behind the No. 1 New England Patriots, and the Eagles' fan base is ranked fifth by Lewis.

"While Eagles fans might not be happy, they are supportive in the face of mediocrity," Lewis writes. "Last year the Eagles struggled on the field, but fans still paid premium prices and filled the stadium."

The difference between the Patriots and the Cowboys for the top spot was social engagement by Patriots fans, according to Lewis. So all those Deflategate tweets and trolls paid off. Free Tawmmy!

The Washington Redskins' fan base is 16th, and the Jets are ranked 17th.

The details on the study, via the Lewis report:

In past years, two measures of engagement have been featured: Fan Equity and Social Media Equity. Fan Equity focuses on home box office revenues (support via opening the wallet) and Social Media Equity focuses on fan willingness to engage as part of a team's community (support exhibited by joining social media communities).

This year I have come up with a new method that combines these two measures: Dynamic Fan Equity (DFE). The DFE measure leverages the best features of the two measures. Fan Equity is based on the most important consumer trait - willingness to spend. Social Equity captures fan support that occurs beyond the walls of the stadium and skews towards a younger demographic. The key insight that allows for the two measures to be combined is that there is a significant relationship between the Social Media Equity trend and the Fan Equity measure. Social media performance turns out to be a strong leading indicator for financial performance.

Dynamic Fan Equity is calculated using current fan equity and the trend in fan equity from the team's social media performance. I will spare the technical details on the blog but I'm happy to go into depth if there is interest. On the data side we are working with 15 years of attendance data and 4 years of social data.

James Kratch can be reached at jkratch@njadvancemedia.com or by leaving a note in the comments below. Follow him on Twitter @JamesKratch. Find and like NJ.com Giants on Facebook.