Skip to main content
Join Now
Get a profile. Be recruited.

Report: Notre Dame, Villanova basketball teams set to announce doubleheader in Rome for 2026-27

Danby: Daniel Hager04/17/26DanielHagerOn3

Villanova and Notre Dame men’s and women’s basketball will be playing a doubleheader in Rome next season, CNN Sports reported on Friday. Per a FOX release, the event is named the ‘Eternal City Tip-Off’.

The game will be played on Nov. 1 in honor of Pope Leo XIV, the first American Pope and a Villanova graduate. The men’s game will be played at 9:30 a.m. ET and aired on FOX, while the women’s game will tip off at noon ET on FS1. The site of the games has yet to be revealed.

Since Pope Leo XIV, formerly known as Father Bob Prevost, took over as the head of the Catholic Church on May 8, 2025, multiple Chicago-area sports teams have honored him in some way. The Chicago White Sox honored Leo XIV ahead of multiple games last season, and Leo XIV was gifted a Chicago Cubs jersey from the head of the Assyrian Church of the East, Mar Awa III.

CNN Sports also reports that the teams in Rome will come together for a shared Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica.

‘Eternal City Tip-Off’ will take place on Nov. 1 in Rome

Villanova is coming off the first season of the Kevin Willard era, which saw the Wildcats return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since they made a run to the Final Four in 2022. They posted a 24-9 (15-5) record and earned a No. 8 seed in the Tournament, where they fell to No. 9 seed Utah State.

Notre Dame, meanwhile, has struggled mightily under head coach Micah Shrewsberry. Shrewsberry just finished his third season in South Bend, which saw the Irish once again finish with under 20 wins. Across three seasons under his leadership, they are just 41-56 (19-39) and have yet to sniff the NCAA Tournament appearance.

A potential blessing from the Pope, however, could turn things around for both programs going forward. One of the best parts of college basketball is neutral site games in cool venues, and a neutral site game in Rome could immediately cement itself as one of the best of all time.

The Notre Dame women’s team is no stranger to playing abroad, as it faced South Carolina in a neutral site game in Paris in 2023. They are coming off a run to the Elite Eight of the Women’s NCAA Tournament, while Denise Dillon’s Wildcats were eliminated in the First Round of the NCAA Tournament.