California Love is displayed throughout the NCAA men’s basketball tournament this year, with UCLA leading the way.

However, there are some surprising California sleepers experts predict can have a Cinderella run and bust brackets along the way. California Baptist, Santa Clara and Saint Mary’s College have all earned bids to the 2026 NCAA Tournament.

The California Baptist Lancers are going to the big dance for the first time. The Santa Clara Broncos are going for the first time in a long time; their last NCAA Tournament appearance was in 1996, when they were led by Steve Nash.

For the Saint Mary’s Gaels, it’s their fifth straight appearance, but they have been a first- or second-round exit each year since 2022.

All three hope to make this the year of unpredictability. Here’s what the experts think of their chances in the 2026 NCAA men’s basketball tournament.

More NCAA: March Madness bracket predictions, from hot takes to upsets to Final Four picks

The California Board of Parole Hearings voted on Wednesday to reevaluate an elder parole grant for a convicted child predator from Sacramento.

Gregory Vogelsang, 57, was sentenced back in 1999 to 355 years to life for sexually assaulting kids, some as young as three years old.

In both 2022 and 2024, Vogelsang was found not suitable for parole. But last year, on November 4, a small parole board preliminarily granted it. The case was sent to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office for review, and he referred it back to the larger parole board for what was expected to be a final decision during Wednesday’s hearing.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) said the board instead voted to refer the grant of elder parole to a rescission hearing in four to six months. That hearing is meant to determine “if a fundamental error was committed by the granting panel that may indicate that a grant of parole was improper,” according to the CDCR.

That rescission hearing will determine whether the original parole grant for Vogelsang should stand or be reversed.

Under California’s elder parole law, inmates age 50 and older who have served at least 20 consecutive years in prison are eligible for release.

This is not the first child predator to possibly be released in the Sacramento region under the state’s elder parole law.

Just last month, David Allen Funston was expected to be released under California’s elder parole law but was kept behind bars after new charges were filed in nearby Placer County.

Funston, 64, was convicted back in 1999 of 16 counts of kidnapping and child molestation and later sentenced to three consecutive sentences of 25 years to life in prison.   

Some state Republicans are calling on Gov. Newsom and the California Board of Parole to do more and stop possible releases of this nature.

“We should be strengthening protections, not weakening them. We should be standing with survivors, not retraumatizing them. We should be ensuring that those who commit most heinous crimes, especially against children, are held fully accountable,” Assemblymember Jeff Gonzelez said during a press conference in Sacramento ahead of Vogelsang’s hearing. “This is not about politics. This is about right and wrong.”

Sacramento County District Attorney Thien Ho issued a statement Wednesday afternoon thanking community members “for the overwhelming response” to oppose Vogelsang’s release at the hearing.

“Hundreds of you showed up, emailed, and called the Board of Parole—you put people before predators, public safety above politics and children before criminals who preyed upon the most vulnerable,” Ho said.

Despite a long, entrenched Democratic reign over California politics, a new poll shows two Republicans leading by slim margins in the state’s 2026 race for governor as the June primary election fast approaches.

The confounding results appear to be mostly due to the state’s left-leaning electorate feeling uninspired by any single candidate in the crowded field of eight top Democrats. Because of California’s top-two primary rule, that lethargy could lead to Democrats being shut out of a November election that will determine the next leader of the largest state in the union, though that is still considered unlikely.

Conservative commentator Steve Hilton had the support of 17% of likely voters and Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco had the backing of 16%, according to a poll released Wednesday by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies and co-sponsored by The Times.

Following closely behind were Democrats Rep. Eric Swalwell of Northern California and former Orange County Rep. Katie Porter, both of whom had support from 13% of the likely voters surveyed. Aside from billionaire hedge fund founder and environmental activist Tom Steyer, who registered at 10% support after plowing tens of millions of dollars into his campaign, no other Democrat had won support from more than 5% of likely voters, the poll showed.

Mark DiCamillo, director of the poll, said he was stunned by how fractured voters are and how little knowledge they have about the candidates less than 60 days before ballots start arriving in Californians’ mailboxes.

“This is historic for me, and especially given that none of the candidates have really a positive image rating with voters, also startling. I mean, perhaps one of the reasons why voters are disengaged, they’re just not enthusiastic about any of the candidates,” he said. “They’re kind of sleepwalking to this election.”

Swalwell and Porter both hew toward the progressive wing of the party and rose to national prominence as frequent guests on cable news shows and as combative, at times theatrical, committee members during congressional oversight hearings. That notoriety prompted attacks from Republicans and the far right and increased their popularity among the Democratic base — both pivotal for voters seeking a strong candidate to challenge President Trump.

Porter slightly rebounded after a dip in polling in the fall after videos emerged of her berating an aide and a reporter. She also has the highest favorable rating of any candidate in the field at 34%.

According to the survey, Steyer’s support from likely voters increased to 10% from just 1% in Berkeley’s October poll. The momentum comes after Steyer spent about $50 million airing television ads since December, according to an analysis by data expert Paul Mitchell for Capitol Weekly.

Among the other top Democrats in the race: former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra was backed by 5% of likely voters; former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and San José Mayor Matt Mahan by 4%, and former state Controller Betty Yee and state Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond by 1%.

The poll found that 16% of likely voters were either undecided or backed other, lesser-known candidates.

The splintered support for the Democrats hoping to become the state’s next governor has surfaced in other ways as well. On Monday, the powerful California Federation of Labor voted to endorse four gubernatorial candidates — half the Democratic field.

DiCamillo said he believes the poll’s inclusion of the candidates’ titles that voters will see on their ballots is crucial in a low-information contest.

“That really matters in a race where voters don’t have much information, or they say they don’t know much about the candidates,” he said, adding that it could particularly help Bianco, the Riverside County sheriff. “His job title is kind of impressive, and that voters think, well, that’s credible, so let me consider him.”

The fear of two Republicans winning the top two spots in the June 2 primary prompted California Democratic Party Chair Rusty Hicks to urge low-polling candidates to consider their viability and drop out if they didn’t see a path forward earlier this month.

Some candidates bristled, arguing that party leaders were in effect telling every candidate of color to leave the race. Aside from one candidate, all of the top Democrats in the race responded by quickly filing their campaign documents with the secretary of state’s office, meaning that their names will appear on the ballot.

The two candidates who receive the most votes in the primary are the only ones who advance to the November general election — regardless of their political party.

The odds that a Republican will become California’s next governor appear slim. No Republican has won a statewide election in California since 2006, the year Hollywood movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger was elected to a second term as governor. Democratic registered voters in the state outnumber Republicans by nearly 2 to 1.

Compared with prior gubernatorial races that had well-known Democratic front-runners, none of the candidates of either party are particularly well known by voters. Large numbers of voters have no opinion about any of the candidates — including roughly two-thirds of those asked about Mahan, Yee and Thurmond.

Voters were far more tuned in to the issues that they believe are most important for the state’s next governor to tackle.

Affordability was dominant among all voters, regardless of political ideology, the poll found. Four out of 10 voters said reducing the cost of living in California is among the top issues the next governor should prioritize, and smaller numbers also highlighted building affordable housing and lowering gas prices and utility rates.

Affordability “is the top issue for voters, both here in California and across the country. There’s no question,” DiCamillo said. “Perhaps it’s even of greater urgency here in California, just given our cost of living is higher than in most other places.”

Building new housing, paring back regulations to allow such construction quickly and to reduce the cost of buy a home, disincentivizing private firms from buying homes and reducing gas prices are among topics candidates frequently speak about on the campaign trail and in debates.

A notable split was evident among voters when asked about cutting waste, fraud and political corruption in state government, the poll found. Nearly 50% of Republicans said this was a top priority, compared with 10% of Democrats and a little over a quarter of voters who do not state a party preference.

DiCamillo said this sentiment aligns with President Trump’s messaging and what his administration has been pursuing in the federal government. Trump has repeatedly painted California as teeming with waste, fraud and abuse. On Monday, when he launched a task force to fight fraud that will be led by Vice President JD Vance, California was among the states he singled out as having insufficient oversight of federal funds.

GOP voters in California share similar sentiments, DiCamillo said.

In Washington, D.C., “they’re cutting back, trying to make government smaller, and … just cut the waste as well,” he said. California “Republicans, given the fact that Democrats have been controlling things for so long, they think … more of that is needed now here in California as well.”

The Berkeley IGS/Times poll surveyed 5,019 California registered voters online in English and Spanish from March 9 to 14. The results are estimated to have a margin of error of 2.5 percentage points in either direction in the overall sample, and larger numbers for subgroups.