The pontiff, a Villanova alum, met both teams in Rome before Sunday's Eternal City Tip-Off at Palazzo dello Sport.
Pope Leo XIV hosted the Villanova and Notre Dame basketball programs at the Vatican on Saturday, and he was not playing favorites, at least not officially. The pope, who is a Villanova graduate and was born Robert Prevost, told the gathered players, coaches and families that in matters of sport he remains neutral.
He did not leave it entirely at that. "Prevost has another opinion, but we won't do that now," he said, drawing laughs from the crowd of 7,000 people packed into the Vatican audience hall.
The joke set the tone for a lighter moment ahead of the real business: Villanova and Notre Dame open the college basketball season Sunday with a doubleheader in Rome, part of what organizers are calling the Eternal City Tip-Off. The games will be played at the 11,000-seat Palazzo dello Sport, about a half hour from the Vatican, with the men's and women's teams from both schools taking part.
The audience itself had been uncertain for a while, since the 71-year-old pope recently underwent lung cancer surgery. He showed up anyway, trading dribbles, photos and jokes with the players before sending them off to settle things on the court instead of in the stands.