Predict the 2012 Cal Football Season: Spring Edition

Last season ended on a sour note. After solid performances in the final regular season games, the Bears struggled mightily against Texas. Our dreams of avenging the 2004 fiasco were crushed. Two weeks later, previously beloved coach Tosh Lupoi left for Washington and our top-10 recruiting class fizzled. We loved the Bears once again and they broke our hearts. We were reminded of that familiar life lesson: never love anything.

Many of us took that lesson seriously--we vowed to do no more sunshine pumping. The emotional investment in the Bears was too costly. No matter how many times we told ourselves to be modest and humble in our expectations, we would build up grand expectations of the Bears and be disappointed over and over again. This time, we had learned our lesson.

Months have passed and spring has come. Witter field was again filled with the smells of freshly cut grass and warm pigskins flying through the air. The sun is out and shining again...will we dust off the old sunshine pumps or have we finally decommissioned them? What better way to find out than by making some predictions for the 2012 season.

Spring practice is becoming a distant memory. Some questions have been answered (plugging holes in the front seven) while others are in doubt (will anyone be able to play center this fall? will we have a decent punter or will we go for it on every fourth down?). We undoubtedly know more about the team than we did two months ago and it's time to put that knowledge to the test.

After the jump we encourage you to fill out your predictions for the 2012 season (you can also find the form here). Instead of simply predicting wins and losses, we are interested in the chance that Cal will win. If you believe Cal has a 99.9% chance of beating Utah Southern, submit a "0.999" on the form underneath that game. If you believe Cal has a 20% chance of beating USC, submit "0.20" there. And so forth. Please keep your submissions between 0.00 and 1.00, otherwise it slows things down when I run the numbers. You can add up your percentages to get an estimated number of wins. You have until 8pm on Sunday May 13th to fill out a ballot. We will have the results soon after.

Thanks for participating and Go Bears!