Villanova and Notre Dame finalizing a deal to open 2026-27 basketball season in Italy
Villanova and Notre Dame may have an audience with Pope Leo XIV to open the 2026-27 men's and women's college basketball season.
An audience with the Pope?
Villanova and Notre Dame are finalizing an agreement to open the 2026-27 men’s and women’s basketball seasons with a doubleheader in Rome, sources told The Inquirer.
CBS Sports was first to report the news Tuesday night.
A contract has not yet been signed, and some logistics are still being worked out, but the schools are working toward that point, sources said. According to CBS, the schools received a special waiver to play the games on Sunday, Nov. 1, despite the college basketball season officially starting a day later.
The games will be played at the Palazzetto dello Sport, which seats 3,500 people for basketball, according to CBS.
The contests are likely to give Villanova an audience with arguably the school’s most famous graduate. Pope Leo XIV is a 1977 Villanova alum formerly known as Bob Prevost. Notre Dame, meanwhile, is the largest catholic university by endowment.
» READ MORE: ‘How absurd is that?’: Pope Leo XIV, once just a Villanova student named Bob, is a Wildcats basketball fan
The game gives Villanova’s men’s team another power-conference opponent on its non-conference schedule. The Wildcats will host Michigan and Wisconsin and also play at Pittsburgh during their nonconference slate next season.