Notre Dame, Villanova to tip off basketball season in Rome, visit Pope

Players from the Notre Dame and Villanova women's and men's basketball teams will be part of a planned audience for Pope Leo XIV during their trip to Rome to launch the 2026-26 regular season. File Photo by Stefano Spaziani/UPI

April 17 (UPI) -- Villanova and Notre Dame will meet in a season-opening men's and women's basketball doubleheader Nov. 1 in Rome, the schools announced Friday.

The doubleheader, dubbed the Eternal City Tip-Off, will start with a men's matchup at 9:30 a.m. on Fox. The Villanova Wildcats and Notre Dame Fighting Irish women will play at noon on FS1.

The Fighting Irish and Wildcats athletes will visit Rome and Vatican City, with a planned audience with Pope Leo XIV for before their games.

"Pope Leo has spoken in such inspiring ways about the value of sport, emphasizing that sport is a 'school of life' that integrates the body, mind, and spirit, a vision both Notre Dame and Villanova wholeheartedly embrace," Rev. Robert A. Dowd, the president of the University of Notre Dame, said in a news release.

"We are honored to join Villanova for what is sure to be the experience of a lifetime for our student-athletes and fans.

"We know well the transformative impact of spending time in a city that is so central to our faith and rich in history, having established Notre Dame Rome in 2014, which allows us to host hundreds of students and scholars from around the world each year. It's exciting and most fitting to add athletic competitions to our many activities in Rome."

The venue for the doubleheader will be announced later.

"This is a special opportunity for our players and coaches to be part of a global event," Wildcats men's basketball coach Kevin Willard said. "To represent Villanova in Rome to open our 2026-27 season is such a great honor.

"We appreciate the enormous effort that's gone into making it possible."

The Wildcats' men's basketball team is coming off a 24-9 season, which ended with a loss to Utah State in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament. The Wildcats' women's basketball team was 25-8 and lost to Texas Tech in the first round of the 2026 NCAA Division I women's basketball tournament.

The Fighting Irish women's basketball team was 25-11 and lost to UConn in the Elite 8. The Fighting Irish men's basketball team was 13-8 and failed to make the NCAA tournament for the eighth time in nine years.