ROME — Pope Leo XIV has never been shy about weighing in on thorny topics: war and peace, artificial intelligence, the rights of migrants, the causes of poverty. This weekend, he’ll be focused on college basketball.
The sports-loving American pope has already offered what could be called a prediction: asked on the papal plane a month ago about the season opener between his alma mater, Villanova, and Notre Dame, the pontiff said he’d been told the crowd would be dominated by the Wildcats. “The voice of the people of God will be very strong,” he said, though organizers have since said the split between fan bases won’t be as lopsided as the pope predicted.
The pontiff’s American background was the inspiration for a clash between two of the U.S.’s most recognizable Catholic universities in what is being tabbed as the Eternal City Tip-Off. The men’s game at Rome’s Palazzo dello Sport begins Sunday at 9:30 a.m. Eastern, on Fox, followed by the women’s game at noon, broadcast by FS1.
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The idea for the games took flight soon after the white smoke billowed from the Sistine Chapel chimney nearly 18 months ago, with former Cardinal Robert Prevost emerging as the 267th pontiff. Within days, Villanova’s athletic director was reportedly texting organizers about a “game in Vatican City.”
Leo was born in Chicago, around 90 minutes from Notre Dame’s campus in South Bend, Indiana, and he graduated from Villanova in 1977. He’s a documented fan of the Wildcats, who won national basketball titles in 1985, 2016 and 2018.
The games were planned before Leo’s health became a story earlier this month, when the pontiff revealed that doctors found a small growth on his lung. Two days later, surgeons at Rome’s Gemelli hospital removed part of his right lung, and the Vatican press office announced he had lung cancer. He went home four days later, but Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Perolin said the pope might have to scale back his schedule.
Leo won’t attend the games, but all indications are that he is still on board for a reception with the fans of all four teams and an audience at the Vatican for around 7,000 traveling fans.
The games are set to take place against a grim political backdrop.
Leo had made calls for peace one of the defining themes of his papacy, including speaking up as a pointed critic of the eight-month-old U.S.- and Israel-led war in Iran. The American fans traveling to Rome will also arrive just days before midterm elections to see a pope who has developed a reputation for speaking his mind to American leaders.
The pope has criticized the “extremely disrespectful” treatment of migrants in the U.S., and he has made the case that poverty is a structural, societal issue and that the poor should not be blamed for their situation.
On the court, Villanova, 24-9 a year ago, is favored behind second-year coach Kevin Willard. The Wildcats are led by first-team all-Big East preseason selection Tyler Perkins, and transfers Kwame Evans Jr. (from Oregon) and Devin Royal (Ohio State). But there are questions about the team after it was routed by Virginia 93-71 in a preseason game.
Notre Dame, meanwhile, is coming off a 13-18 season and is picked to finish 16th out of 18 teams in the ACC. The team lost last year’s three top scorers to the transfer portal. The team is built around incoming transfers, highlighted by point guard Braeden Smith (Gonzaga). Braeden Shrewsberry, son of coach Micah Shrewsberry, is the team’s lone returning season-long starter.
The big local story is 7-foot-3 freshman center Luigi Suigo, from northern Italy, who is projected as a possible NBA lottery pick. Sunday’s game will be his Villanova debut in his home country. Suigo has told reporters that “the only thing I miss about home is my food.”
The women’s game is predicted to be competitive, with Notre Dame ranked 13th in the preseason, featuring last year’s national defensive player of the year Hannah Hidalgo. Villanova is picked to finish second in the Big East, and, as coach Denise Dillon told reporters, they will also “rely on the power of the pope.”
For Romans, the game is treated as a kind of spectacle. Italian universities don’t have varsity sports teams, meaning players like Suigo have to come up through a club system. The idea of thousands of alumni paying thousands of dollars to follow their team across the ocean is treated as unusual in Italian media reports.
The date matters as well: Sunday is All Saints’ Day, a national holiday, and an appropriate day for two Catholic schools to meet.
The area has its own history, dating to the 1960 Olympics, where a young Cassius Clay — the future Muhammad Ali — established himself as a star by winning the boxing gold medal.
The game in Rome is the unofficial kickoff to the 2026-2027 college basketball season, a day before a full slate of college games across the country.
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