Pope to Attend 'Eternal City Tip-Off' As Notre Dame, Villanova Begin 2026

Pope to Attend 'Eternal City Tip-Off' As Notre Dame, Villanova Begin 2026–27 College Basketball Season in Rome

The formal announcement was made by the two schools on Friday.

Notre Dame is set to face off against Villanova in both men’s and women’s basketball in Rome next November. | Michael Caterina-Imagn Images

Notre Dame and Villanova will begin the season on Nov. 1 in Rome, with both the men's and women's programs squaring off against one another in the "Eternal City Tip-Off." The schools formally announced the games on Friday, after it was reported in February by Matt Norlander of CBS Sports that the programs had received a waiver from the NCAA to begin the season overseas.

The two programs will be the first to play in the 2026-'27 season on both the men's and women's side. The college basketball season will begin for the rest of Division I on Nov. 2.

Both games will take place at the Palazzetto dello Sport, which is more commonly referred to locally as the PalaTiziano. The venue seats 3,500 people and was built in the 1950s leading up to Rome playing host to the 1960 Olympics. It was renovated significantly from 2018 to ‘23.

The motivation for the game overseas for the two programs is obvious. Pope Leo XIV is a Villanova alumnus, class of 1977. Both schools are historic private Catholic institutions, with Notre Dame ushering a significant global brand, which includes an outpost in Rome.

The Pope plans on being in attendance for the historic basketball contests in Rome.

The two schools have been working together to arrange the tip-off classic for months, but talks escalated early last fall. Fox will televise both the men’s and women’s contests, which are slated for the afternoon in Rome. The current plan is to have the men’s game, which will take place Sunday morning on the East Coast of the U.S., to lead into Sunday NFL coverage on Fox. The women’s game is slated to air on Fox Sports 1 following the conclusion of the men’s game.

This is believed to be the first season-opener in men’s college basketball abroad, and the first regular season Division I contest in Italy. This will be the second-consecutive season that the women’s game has begun the season overseas, after Duke took on Baylor in Paris to open up the current basketball season.

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