When it comes to the exciting sports world of the National Football League (NFL), and the equally intriguing college students who play football National Collegiate Athletic Association Football (NCCAF), there is a lot to look forward to this forthcoming season. Especially if you are a gambler and plan to partake in legal football betting this year. In fact, both professional and collegiate football fans say that this year could be one of the most exciting seasons ever due, in part, to "lots of great rookie talent." There are numerous online predictions that both NFL and college football teams that did poorly last year are now on re-grouped, and ready to take on the top teams from last season.

Overall, there is a lot of TV and Internet "entertainment value" in predicting the NFL and NCAAF football season previews, say longtime football fans.

If you couldn't bet money on blackjack or roulette, do you think you would ever bother to play those games? It's the money that acts as the driving force. And while the same cannot be said entirely about football, as the NFL would still collect a healthy audience bereft of sportsbooks or fantasy leagues, the fact of the matter is that the league is more popular than ever today almost entirely because of the potential money to be made by gambling on the games. So, to put it simply, this is a preview we're creating here on Legal Football Betting for the gambling audience. Though even if you're just a regular fan who doesn't gamble, you may still want to know some of this football information.

Every year there are massive changes in the league. An old crop of players retire, a new crop enters via the draft, coaches are shuffled around, and some teams even change locations entirely, like St. Louis to LA. With this season's National Football League, we're seeing more changes from '15 to '16 than we've seen in decades. Manning retired, the Rams moved, new salary caps were instituted, new concussion protocols took effect, the point-after TD distance was officially changed to permanent and no longer in its testing phase, and much more. So before you place your bets on football, you may first want to get a handle on what's new in the league and which teams are expected to do well this season.

Since 2002 the New England Patriots have been a team predicted to come out near the top of the league, and they haven't disappointed yet. Apart from missing the playoffs in 2008 when Tom Brady suffered a season-ending knee injury, Brady's Pats are in constant contention for the Super Bowl. The man and his team have been to six of them, and he's won four. So, once again, the Patriots are the favorites to win it all, going off at 15/2 on most sportsbooks for a future wager. Though another team right there in the thick of things are the Seattle Seahawks. At 8/1, oddsmakers seem to have a lot of faith in Pete Carroll's defense and Seattle's ability to rebuild its defense. Luckily for the Seahawks, their defense didn't get dismantled. They lost a couple of key guys and were dealing with injuries, but the core of the machine is still intact and firing on all cylinders. Now that it's been tweaked, most suspect Seattle will end up near the top.

Other teams with the potential to make a run deep into the playoffs include the Pittsburgh Steelers, the Arizona Cardinals, the Green Bay Packers, and even the Cincinnati Bengals. Don't sleep on this team. If not for a late-game unnecessary roughness penalty in last year's playoffs, they would have defeated the Steelers.

There's only so much praise one can lavish on the New England Patriots before this page starts reading like a puff piece from a fan in a Boston newspaper. We documented the Patriots and their odds above. Let's speak about the team that might snatch that crown from them this year, the Pittsburgh Steelers. Last season, losing to Denver on a last-minute fumble, the Steelers were without Antontio Brown, the league's number-one receiver, they were on their third-string running back, and Big Ben had an arm injury and could barely throw the ball. Plus they were plagued with sporadic defensive injuries. Needless to say, the Steelers weren't even close to full strength yet still almost handily defeated the eventual Super Bowl champs. If the Steelers can stay healthy this season, they might just end up defeating the Patriots. This will likely be in Massachusetts, as New England will have a better record, but Pittsburgh is more than used to playing in the elements. The Pats are favored, but Pittsburgh definitely has more than a fighting chance to take the AFC Championship. It will be a very exciting game if these two teams meet up.

The same thing that applied to New England also applies to Seattle. Their odds are well documented, and we're not going to belabor the point that they have the best odds of representing the NFC in next year's Super Bowl. But a team a lot of people are sleeping on is the Green Bay Packers. Because they had O line issues, Jordy Nelson was down, and Aaron Rodgers suffered a leg injury for the better part of the season, many seem to have forgotten how good the Pack are at full strength. Well, we haven't forgotten. If the reports are true, Jordy Nelson is running faster than ever with a full year to recoup, Eddie Lacy is slim, trim and faster, and Rodgers is completely healed. That means that the Packers may very well end up being the top offense in the entire NFL, and with a defense led by Clay Matthews, they can wreak a lot of havoc if they can slip into the top 10 with their defensive prowess. Seattle might be more highly favored based on odds, but we expect that the Packers have an easier road to the NFC Championship and more actual talent on their roster. Rodgers is the league's best QB, and that counts for a lot, as we'll discuss immediately below.

While there's always lots of talk of top NFC and AFC teams in the NFL, it still comes down to the best players.  In fact, the Pat's QB Tom Brady is still the gold standard in the league even while this recent Super Bowl champ is under a dark cloud due to the Deflate-Gate controversy that will keep Brady off the field for at least four games at the start of the new NFL season.  Meanwhile, there's San Francisco QB Colin Kaepernick ready to finally claim his due as top NFL QB based on "sheer talent," say NFL experts.  Because Kaepernick had a so-so seasons last year for the 49ers' there's a view that he will rise from that bad outing and really show himself as a top NFL QB talent.  Still, there's the Super Bowl XLIX champ Russell Wilson who hopes to guide Seahawks back to the "Big Show" this year.

Despite all the running backs and receivers and corner backs and linebackers to come out of college and to get paid big money, the NFL is still a QB-driven league, and it's not even a debate. Even people who point to Denver winning last year because of defense forget how well Peyton Manning played in the playoffs. He had 0 turnovers, he called all the plays from scrimmage, he made the right read nearly every time, and he controlled the clock against some serious opponents like the Pats and Panthers. His numbers weren't great, but every defense he faced was in the top 10, from the Pats and Steelers to the Panthers, with the league's #3 defense. So at nearly 40, a bad arm and a bad leg, Manning still did enough to win. Then flash over to every top team in the league. Is Seattle really driven by their D, or is Russell Wilson a bigger reason for their success? Well, you must score points to win, and the defense hasn't been doing that for the Seahawks of late. So it's all about Wilson. In New England, it's obviously all about Brady. Big Ben for Pittsburgh is a top-5 talent. And on it goes. The Packers live and die based on how well Rodgers does. Without Carson Palmer, the Cardinals fall apart. The NFL is still very much driven by the quarterback position. So when betting on which team does what, focus hard on the QB position.

None of the quarterbacks drafted in this year's draft have suited up to play yet, so let's have a look-see at a couple of last year's top quarterbacks and see how well they're stacking up against the veterans and legends. With the Tennessee Titans, Marcus Mariota played 12 games before falling to injury. He went 230 of 370, for 62.2%, and threw 19 touchdowns and only 10 interceptions. Believe it or not, those are better rookie numbers than Peyton Manning. With a 91.5 QB rating, Mariota proved to be the right pick for the Titans. Jameis Winston wasn't far behind with the Tampa Bay Bucs. He played in all 16 games and went 312 for 525, for a completion total of 58.3%, throwing 22 touchdowns and 15 interceptions. His overall rating was 84.2. Although only rookies, these youngsters did better than a lot of veteran quarterbacks in the league, so the futures of these teams are looking bright.

In the sections above we have went into a lot of detail about some of the teams who oddsmakers believe have the best shot at winning their respective conferences and even Super Bowl 51 in Houston. So instead of getting into the redundant here, we're simply going to list out for you the odds of the top-10 Super Bowl-contending teams in the league.

• New England Patriots – 15/2
• Seattle Seahawks – 8/1
• Pittsburgh Steelers – 10/1
• Green Back Packers – 11/1
• Denver Broncos – 12/1
• Carolina Panthers – 13/1
• Cincinnati Bengals – 16/1
• Minnesota Vikings – 18/1
• Dallas Cowboys – 18/1
• Arizona Cardinals – 18/1

Use this information wisely to gauge the odds of teams before you make your bets. Betting may be considered chance by legal standing, but anyone who's successful with sports betting will tell you that it's all about skill and knowing where teams stand and how they stack up. If you're ready to make a bet, check out our legal superbowl betting section offering up our personal recommendations on the top rated and reputable superbowl sportsbooks.