{"id":27326,"date":"2026-11-01T16:48:28","date_gmt":"2026-11-01T16:48:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/11\/01\/villanova-and-notre-dame-open-the-college-basketball-season-in-rome-following-papal-audience-news4jax\/"},"modified":"2026-11-01T16:48:28","modified_gmt":"2026-11-01T16:48:28","slug":"villanova-and-notre-dame-open-the-college-basketball-season-in-rome-following-papal-audience-news4jax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/11\/01\/villanova-and-notre-dame-open-the-college-basketball-season-in-rome-following-papal-audience-news4jax\/","title":{"rendered":"Villanova and Notre Dame open the college basketball season in Rome following papal audience &#8211; News4JAX"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Andrew Dampf<br \/>Associated Press<br \/>Published:\u00a0<time datetime=\"2026-11-01T09:16:14.000Z\">November 1, 2026 at 4:16 AM<\/time><br \/>Updated:\u00a0<time datetime=\"2026-11-01T15:37:04.000Z\">November 1, 2026 at 10:37 AM<\/time><br \/>Andrew Dampf<br \/>Associated Press<br \/>Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved<br \/>Villanova fans wear team jerseys with the name of Pope Leo XIV before an NCAA college basketball game between Villanova Notre Dame in Rome, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo\/Gregorio Borgia)<br \/><strong>ROME<\/strong> \u2013 They\u2019ve been <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/vatican-pope-leo-villanova-notre-dame-college-basketball-3bb26f5b2b1bc2bd808b2dde13f585cb\">blessed by the pope<\/a>. And now it\u2019s finally time for some hoops.<br \/>The <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/villanova-notre-dame-pope-leo-0cc18301a921ba65dd8d994315d9e614\">Villanova<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/notre-dame-fighting-irish\">Notre Dame<\/a> men\u2019s and women\u2019s teams are meeting in a doubleheader in Rome on Sunday to open the college basketball season.<br \/>Recommended Videos<br \/>The event, dubbed the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/villanova-notre-dame-rome-pope-leo-basketball-8bd493309202a3d8901856f566febcec\">Eternal City Tip-Off<\/a>, was created to honor the first American pope.<br \/>Chicago-born <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/pope-leo-xiv\">Pope Leo XIV<\/a> received all four teams in an audience at the Vatican on Saturday.<br \/>Leo told the teams from his alma mater Villanova and fellow <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/catholic-college-basketball-pope-leo-sister-jean-9747974c22e96512a3720ea0b0a57ffe\">Catholic university<\/a> Notre Dame that in matters of sport, the pontiff is neutral.<br \/>Then the pope, who was born Robert Prevost, said his former self might disagree.<br \/>\u201cPrevost has another opinion, but we won\u2019t do that now,\u201d he said to laughs during a whooping, cheering audience of 7,000 people from both schools \u2014 players, coaches, fans and their families \u2014 in the Vatican audience hall.<br \/>Inside the basketball arena, many Villanova fans wore Wildcats jerseys featuring the name of \u201cPope Leo\u201d and a \u201cXIV\u201d for the number.<br \/>Leo graduated in 1977 with a <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/pope-leo-villanova-robert-prevost-university-347b5a8bbe6836e79f4cb665a6097b0f\">Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Villanova<\/a>, the Augustinian school near Philadelphia. He was born in Chicago \u2014 not all that far from Notre Dame, which is located in South Bend, Indiana.<br \/>Villanova fans also held aloft a banner featuring Pope Leo depicted wearing a Villanova jersey reaching out to the university&#8217;s president, the Rev. Peter M. Donohue, in a playful scene reminiscent of Michelangelo\u2019s fresco in the Sistine Chapel.<br \/>The games are being played at the 11,000-seat Palazzo dello Sport, which is located about a half-hour drive from the Vatican.<br \/>While Leo, who underwent lung cancer surgery last month, was not expected to attend the games, a contingent of cardinals and other Vatican officials was expected at the arena.<br \/>The schools also brought their <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/villanova-notre-dame-team-chaplains-rome-bbf9961b0aedbf09cbd8815db587bf0f\">team chaplains<\/a> to Rome.<br \/>The men\u2019s game started at 3:30 p.m. local (9:30 a.m. EST) and is being shown on Fox with <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/bill-raftery-villanova-notre-dame-rome-6ad069a428dd05b33af013c7fc8696db\">Bill Raftery<\/a> as the analyst. The women\u2019s game, which features the only ranked team of the day in No. 13 Notre Dame, is scheduled for 6 p.m. (noon EST) on FS1.<br \/>The games are being played on All Saints\u2019 Day \u2014 a major Catholic holiday.<br \/>Before tipoff, there was a moment of prayer and the U.S. and Italian national anthems were sung.<br \/>___<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/newsletters\">Sign up for Top 25 poll alerts here<\/a>. See AP\u2019s full <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/mens-college-basketball\">men\u2019s basketball coverage here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/womens-college-basketball\">women\u2019s college basketball coverage here<\/a><br \/>Copyright 2026 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. 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All rights reservedVillanova fans wear team jerseys with the name of Pope Leo XIV before an NCAA college basketball game between Villanova Notre Dame in Rome, Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026. (AP Photo\/Gregorio Borgia)ROME \u2013 They\u2019ve been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27326"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27326\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}