Green Bay Packers Should Be Favorites to Win NFC North

As football came to a close on Sunday night of Week 9 in the season, one aspect of the gridiron world was still very alive: The NFC North title race

Entering Week 10, the race, in order, is ranked with the Detroit Lions at the top at 6-2, with the Green Bay Packers breathing down the neck of the Lions with a 5-3 record, then the 4-5 Minnesota Vikings and the 3-5 Chicago Bears. The two teams over .500, the Packers and the Lions, seem to the be the two main players in the competition.

According to OddsShark.com, the Packers are hovering around a 10 percent chance to win the Super Bowl this season, based on their accumulation of Super Bowl odds. With a sample size of five active online sports books, Green Bay's odds are listed as three set odds of plus-1,000 and two of plus-975.

OddsShark.com explains what a Super Bowl bet would entail and just exactly what the listing numbers signify.

"

Will the New England Patriots win the next Super Bowl? You can place bets at any time on the future Super Bowl champion. This is known as NFL futures betting. Oddsmakers set lines and change them during the season, depending on a team’s success or lack thereof. For example, a first-place team in November may be +200 to win the title (roughly 2/1 odds). This means a $100 bet would pay out a $200 profit if they go on to win the title. However, a 1-8 team may be +2000, where a $100 wager would pay $2,000 as a longshot. They can be profitable and its always fun to predict the winner early in the season. But bet wisely. Betting a large amount on an NFL future bet ties up your money for a long time.

"

So, Green Bay's three listings of plus-1,000 would correlate to a 10 percent chance bet of them winning it all, while the plus-975 bets would put them at 10.25 percent.

The other heavyweight in the NFC North, Detroit, is listed below Green Bay, despite a single-game lead in the division that also includes a tiebreaking win from earlier in the season. In OddsShark.com's listings, Detroit is between a plus-2,000 (Bovada) and plus-2,500 (Bet Online and Sports Betting) chance to come home with the Lombardi Trophy. Those numbers would signify a 5 percent and 4 percent shot, about half of Green Bay's current number.

When averaging the numbers from 5 Dimes and Bovada, two of the most popular online sportsbooks, from the OddsSharks.com site, there becomes an interesting revelation: Green Bay clearly edges the division in pure talent, at least in Vegas' eyes.

With the averaged criteria, the Packers rank third in the league, including second in the NFC, in Super Bowl odds with a plus-988 mark. That's a 10.12 percent value. Only the Denver Broncos at 38.46 percent and Seattle Seahawks at 12.50 percent net a higher asking price in value.

The rest of the division doesn't rank nearly as well. Detroit comes in tied at 11th with the San Diego Chargers at a 4.5 percent value. Chicago ranks third in the division with a 0.5 percent value. Minnesota rounds out the North with a 0.1 percent mark.

So, with Green Bay having such a clear lead over the other divisional rivals, their schedule should bode pretty well for them down the road, correct?

Let's start this one at the bottom of the odds. Minnesota has a bye next week but will finish the season with seven straight games, six of which are against teams who have better Super Bowl odds than the Vikings. If we decided to select the winners of games based on Super Bowl odds, giving us a projected record, the Vikings would finish 5-11.

The Chicago Bears, who have the second-worst odds in the North, will play eight more games, five against teams with better odds in the Super Bowl race. In Week 13-16, there's a stretch of four games in a row in which the Bears face superior teams, based on Vegas' projection. While only one game, the first Detroit game of the stretch, is on the road, their projected record under our criteria would be 6-10.

Detroit, which currently leads the North, has an interesting stretch coming up. The hot Miami Dolphins, who beat AFC contender San Diego 37-0 this past Sunday, will be visitors in the Motor City this week. Outside of that match, the Lions shouldn't have much to stress regarding home games, as they play the Bears, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the Vikings to finish their Ford Field competitions.

The issue for them is going to be their late-in-the-season road games. After Miami, the Lions play the Arizona Cardinals and New England Patriots, both ranked in the top seven in Super Bowl odds, on the road back-to-back. The squad also faces the Packers on the road in Week 17. Based on our criteria, Detroit would finish with an 11-5 record in 2014.

Lastly are the Packers. While they won't be underdogs in any of the remaining 2014 matches, barring an injury, Green Bay does play two relatively tough games to end the year. Like the Lions, they too play two top-seven Vegas-odds squads: the Patriots and Philadelphia Eagles. Unlike the Lions, though, they don't have to play them on the road.

Under the criteria expressed earlier, the team would finish with a 13-3 record. While rarely are games played out perfectly on paper, let alone weeks, this gives an interesting look at how both gamblers and fans should be perceiving what remains of the NFC North's 2014.

It's currently no surprise that the Packers are the favorites in the division to win the Super Bowl. With only a game and a tiebreaker separating them from the lead in the North, the Packers can absolutely make up that ground over the next eight weeks. With Detroit's rough road schedule coming up and Chicago and Minnesota not projected to truly compete for a title run, don't be shocked if the Packers come from behind to steal a home playoff bid.