ROME (AP) — An hour after Robert Prevost was elected as the first American pope, Villanova's athletic director texted sports travel expert John Anthony with the idea.
“It just said, ‘ Villanova - Notre Dame. Basketball game in Vatican City?’” Anthony said, recounting how he then responded to Eric Roedl a moment later “with all caps, ‘YES. I’M SERIOUS. WE’RE GOING TO DO THIS.’”
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Pope Leo XIV is presented with flowers as he leaves at the end of the general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
FILE - Villanova's Jalen Brunson, left, leans on coach Jay Wright during a timeout during the second half of an NCAA men's college basketball tournament first-round game against Radford, Thursday, March 15, 2018, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
Pope Leo XIV thanks the faithful during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Leo XIV holds his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Now, 1 ½ years later, the idea is about to become reality: the Villanova and Notre Dame men’s and women’s teams will meet in a doubleheader in Rome — not quite Vatican City, but close enough — on Nov. 1 that will mark the start of the college basketball season.
The Catholic universities are promoting the games as a celebration of their shared mission and heritage. The event has been dubbed the Eternal City Tip-Off and there will be a Vatican component: Villanova alumnus Pope Leo XIV is scheduled — health permitting — to hold a private audience Oct. 31 with all four teams and their traveling fans. A total of about 7,000 people are expected in the Paul VI audience hall inside the Vatican.
“He will know who they (the players) are. He’s a true, blue Villanovan," said the Rev. Rob Hagan, Villanova’s longtime team chaplain, adding that Leo used to attend Wildcats games at the Palestra, the Philadelphia arena known as “The Cathedral of College Basketball."
“And of course he’s not unfamiliar with Notre Dame and their history and legacy,” Hagan added. "I think he’ll be very dialed in and excited to be part of it.”
The plans involving the pope were made before the 71-year-old Leo had the lower lobe of his right lung removed last week and was diagnosed with lung cancer. Hagan said: "We’re rooting for him.”
Leo graduated in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science in mathematics from Villanova, the Augustinian school near Philadelphia. He was born in Chicago — not all that far from Notre Dame, which is located in South Bend, Indiana.
“To have a pope who grew up an hour and a half from Notre Dame, who went to Villanova, who is an open sports fan, who consistently speaks about uniting the world and the ability of sports to bring people together — it’s just a unifying occasion that sport uniquely can do,” added Anthony, who has also organized college football games in Ireland for years.
Asked about the upcoming games on the papal plane during a recent trip to France, Leo said, “They tell me that the people coming to the match, 90% are Villanova and 10% Notre Dame, so the voice of the people of God will be very strong on the Villanova side.”
It turns out Leo may have received some inflated numbers.
"Yes, the turnout among the fans has been phenomenal. It will be a full arena. It’s safe to say there will be more Villanova fans than Notre Dame, but no, it won’t be anywhere near nine to one,” Anthony said.
The games will be played at the 11,000-seat Palazzo dello Sport, where Cassius Clay — before he became Muhammad Ali — boxed to a gold medal during the 1960 Rome Olympics.
While the arena is only about a half-hour drive from the Vatican, the pope is not expected to attend the games.
Popes regularly go to sports stadiums when they are travelling internationally, but in those cases the pope is presiding over a papal event: A Mass, a youth vigil or some other event tied to his mission as Christ’s vicar on Earth. He doesn’t go as a spectator, but rather as the chief celebrant.
As a result, the pope’s attendance at a basketball game, even a season opener featuring his alma mater, seems unlikely — especially considering his health condition. Still, organizers are preparing for the possibility that Leo shows up.
“He can throw up the ball for the tip off. He can do whatever he wants and we will say, ‘Thank you,’” Anthony said. “We certainly have made contingency plans.”
The Vatican didn’t immediately respond when asked if Leo would attend the games. Nov. 1 is a Sunday and a major Catholic holiday — All Saints’ Day — which usually involves a papal Mass and noontime prayer at the Vatican. The men’s game starts at 3:30 p.m. local (9:30 a.m. ET) and the women’s game starts at 6 p.m. local (noon ET).
There should be a decent contingent of American cardinals and archbishops at the games. Philadelphia Archbishop Nelson Perez will celebrate a private mass for traveling fans in St. Peter’s Basilica the day before the games.
The men’s game will mark a Villanova debut on home soil for 7-foot-3 freshman center Luigi Suigo, a 19-year-old Italian who is a projected NBA draft lottery pick.
Organizers cut off ticket sales in the U.S. to hold some space in the arena for local fans hoping to see Suigo, who has been nicknamed the “Italian Wemby” after San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama, who is French.
In the women’s game, the main attraction will be Notre Dame guard Hannah Hidalgo, last season’s Naismith national defensive player of the year and a top WNBA prospect.
Hidalgo averaged 25.3 points last season and is the only major conference player this century to record 2,000 points, 500 rebounds, 400 assists and 400 steals prior to the conclusion of their junior season.
“She plays with a motor that I don’t know we’ve ever seen before — just non-stop energy,” said Anthony, a Notre Dame alum.
The Michigan football team visited the Vatican in 2017, with then-coach Jim Harbaugh giving Pope Francis a personalized winged helmet complete with the pope’s name and number (226) and a pair of size 11 Jordan Brand sneakers.
While there have been high-level college basketball games in Europe before — Kentucky beat Michigan in London in 2022; plus the Armed Forces Classic in Germany — organizers for this event are taking it to a new level.
“For instance, we had the court constructed in the U.S. and it went over by sea to Italy,” Anthony said. “This is a very high-quality production in every way. From exterior signage to interior hospitality spaces to scoreboards and shot clocks and video boards.”
With 7,000 traveling fans spending $3,000 each, Anthony estimated that the event will inject $21 million into the Italian economy.
Anthony is the executive vice president of On Location, a global leader in sports hospitality that arranges ticket packages for the Super Bowl. On Location also worked on the Milan Cortina Olympics and the soccer World Cup this year.
“We’re living in the center of this sports tourism global boom,” he said. “This is the biggest year in the history of that industry.”
In order to televise the men’s game — Bill Raftery will be the analyst — Fox is eliminating one of its NFL pregame shows that Sunday. The women’s game will be shown on FS1.
Tip-off for the men’s game (at 9:30 a.m. ET) comes when church goers in much of the U.S. usually attend Sunday mass.
Maybe Pope Leo will have something to say about that.
Associated Press writer Nicole Winfield in Vatican City contributed to this report.
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Pope Leo XIV is presented with flowers as he leaves at the end of the general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
FILE - Villanova's Jalen Brunson, left, leans on coach Jay Wright during a timeout during the second half of an NCAA men's college basketball tournament first-round game against Radford, Thursday, March 15, 2018, in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
Pope Leo XIV thanks the faithful during his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
Pope Leo XIV holds his weekly general audience in St. Peter's Square at The Vatican, Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia)
President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday announced a $25 million program to encourage the public to blow the whistle on suspected fraud in the U.S. government as they ramp up efforts to end the abuse of federal programs and dollars.
Meanwhile, Republican Vivek Ramaswamy ’s team confirmed late Tuesday that it produced a controversial advertisement featuring the estranged mother of Amy Acton, and the campaign says it will spend $4 million to promote it despite facing bipartisan rebuke for dredging up the painful childhood of his Democratic opponent in Ohio’s governor’s race.
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Rubio said Ukraine would no longer exist if it wasn’t for U.S. support.
Rubio’s comments to reporters in Mumbai, India, came as the administration has been taken to task for curtailing intelligence sharing and the supply of weaponry for Ukraine. He said the administration would no longer take such criticism without a response.
“We’re no longer going to be defensive about this topic. If it were not for the assistance of the United States, including under the Trump administration, there would be no Ukraine right now,” Rubio said. “Ukraine as a sovereign state would not exist.”
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is insisting that President Trump and the U.S. government more broadly had nothing to do with interruptions to Ukraine’s access to crucial satellite data that Ukrainian officials say have compromised their ability to counter Russian attacks.
Speaking to reporters in India on Wednesday, Rubio said for the third time in four days that any throttling of network access to Ukraine was not directed or ordered by Trump or anyone else in his administration. He suggested, though, that the owner of the system, Elon Musk, may have been involved.
“What I can tell you with certainty is the president of the United States nor anyone in our system ever requested that any changes to that system be made, and that’s what we said repeatedly,” Rubio said. “The president has nothing to do with the decisions that are made by Starlink and Starshield and by Mr. Musk. That’s a private company. The president doesn’t run that company and can’t direct that company to do anything.”
That’s Neil Bush, the brother of one Republican president and the son of another, who authored a long Facebook post Tuesday night saying he voted early, and for Talarico over Republican Senate candidate Ken Paxton.
Bush said his decision was two-pronged. Paxton’s past, particularly his spearheading of a failed lawsuit to challenge the 2020 election results, “was an affront to our democratic institutions,” Bush wrote. Those who have “enabled” Trump, he continued, “have done enormous damage to the Republican Party.”
Turning to Talarico, Bush noted that he’d never met the candidate, but that he’s been “enormously impressed” and has seen “integrity, civility, humility” and an openness to listen to those who disagree with him.
“I have been a Republican for most of my life, and I still believe deeply in many traditional Republican principles,” Bush wrote, “but character matters more than party affiliation.”
Some Republican lawmakers are reacting with dismay in response to Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff’s praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin as a “humanitarian.”
“No. Putin is stone cold killer,” said Republican Sen. John Cornyn in a social media post on X.
“Another embarrassment,” said Republican Rep. Don Bacon, including a clip of Witkoff’s remarks, in his post.
“What an embarrassing and outrageous thing to say,” said Republican Sen. Thom Tillis of North Carolina. “You should go back to Ukraine and ask the families of the children Putin has kidnapped and murdered whether they agree your friend Putin is a ‘humanitarian.’”
Witkoff’s description came as he thanked Putin for releasing an American who had been jailed for more than four years on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine.
Collins made the campaign stop at a hot dog restaurant in Maine on Wednesday morning with former Sen. Joe Manchin as she tries to win reelection to her seat.
Collins, a five-term Republican senator, is in a tough reelection fight with Democrat Troy Jackson. Manchin touted her as a longtime moderate voice during a brief appearance after the morning campaign event.
Manchin, a longtime Democrat who became an independent shortly before retiring from the Senate, called Collins “the soul of the Senate.”
The two are also scheduled to appear at a New Balance sneaker facility in Maine later Wednesday.
To voter Roy Lyons, Los Angeles has been losing luster for years. A homeless crisis endures despite billions of dollars of spending. City Hall’s budget keeps swelling — as do the taxes needed to support it.
As the retired insurance broker from the Sherman Oaks neighborhood ponders his pick in the upcoming mayoral election, he’s leaning toward the unpopular incumbent, Mayor Karen Bass, over her fellow progressive Democrat Nithya Raman, a little-known city council member who’s backed by the Democratic Socialists of America. She endorsed Bass before changing her mind and entering the race.
Neither choice gives him confidence about the future.
“Is this the best we can do?” asked Lyons, a Democrat, who attended a recent candidate forum. “I don’t think either one shines.”
If Bass wins the Nov. 3 election, it will be because she was able to persuade voters like Lyons to give her a second chance after a rough first term that included the deadly Palisades Fire, which ignited when she was out of the country and caught the fire department unprepared.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s foreign affairs adviser Yuri Ushakov told reporters after a meeting between Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff that the Russian leader has agreed “in principle” to resume the trilateral talks after Nov. 10.
Witkoff held talks with Putin in St. Petersburg on Wednesday about Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as Trump pushes Kyiv to make a deal that stops the fighting.
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The Justice Department’s inspector general has declined to investigate the handling of the criminal case against a former Olympian cleared of accusations that he intentionally damaged the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, according to a letter Wednesday from the man’s lawyers.
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“Given the substantial public attention devoted to this matter, and the significant questions raised concerning the conduct of federal officials, declining independent review would risk undermining public confidence in the Department’s ability to police its own conduct. Such a result would be inconsistent with the purposes for which Congress established the OIG and would be a betrayal of its mission,” the letter says.
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The White House says the administration is using every tool available to stop foreign-based organized criminal organizations that exploit Americans online.
According to data supplied by the White House, federal authorities have seized more than 500 fraudulent cryptocurrency investment websites.
They’ve also interrupted millions of social media, email and internet accounts used by foreign criminal organizations to hunt victims in America, and have identified and warned nearly 9,000 people while they were in the process of being victimized, preventing an estimated $562 million in losses.
President Trump will visit South Carolina on Wednesday to boost Sen. Darline Graham, whose stumbles in her first campaign since replacing her late brother have Democratic voters hopeful — but not necessarily optimistic — their candidate can break Republicans’ grip on the state.
Although South Carolina isn’t typically a midterm battleground, Trump has been deeply invested in Graham. He supported her appointment to replace Lindsey Graham after his death in July, and he backed her in a special primary when she faced several more experienced Republican opponents.
Now the party wants to make sure Annie Andrews, the Democratic nominee and a pediatrician, doesn’t pull off an upset victory. More than $34 million has flowed into the race, and Republicans have hammered Andrews as a “radical liberal” and accused her of supporting surgeries for transgender minors, which she denies.
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Russia on Wednesday freed an American who’d been jailed for more than four years on charges of fighting as a mercenary in Ukraine, in a deal completed during a visit by a top U.S. envoy and at a time when President Trump has taken a series of actions meant to benefit Moscow.
Trump said in a Truth Social post that he had asked Russian President Vladimir Putin during a phone call last week to free Stephen Hubbard, and that, unlike previous releases, his had not required the U.S. to give up anyone in return.
“Welcome home, Stephen, it’s great to have you back,” Trump said.
Hubbard, a 74-year-old former teacher from Michigan, was on his way home following a visit to St. Petersburg by U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff, who also held talks with Putin about Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as Trump pushes Kyiv to make a deal that stops the fighting.
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The Ukrainian president told Fox News on Wednesday that he would agree to a ceasefire with Russia, freezing control of land as it currently stands more than four years since Russia invaded Ukraine, provided the U.S. provides security guarantees as a permanent peace deal is negotiated.
“Freeze and talks and security guarantees,” Zelenskyy said.
Still, Zelenskyy said during the interview that Ukraine does not want to yield any land permanently.
“They are not winning on the battlefield,” he said of Putin’s forces. That’s why Putin is trying to “push us from our land” at the negotiating table, Zelenskyy said. “It’s not fair.”
Republican Vivek Ramaswamy ’s team confirmed late Tuesday that it produced a controversial advertisement featuring the estranged mother of Amy Acton, and the campaign said it will spend $4 million to promote it despite facing bipartisan rebuke for dredging up the painful childhood of his Democratic opponent in Ohio’s governor’s race.
The decision exacerbates a deeply personal element in one of the country’s most closely watched and expensive campaigns for state office. Questions about the video will likely shadow Ramaswamy, a biotech billionaire who previously ran for president but has never before held public office, in the final two weeks of the contest. Democrats said he was growing desperate at a moment when more than 676,000 people have already cast ballots in Ohio.
The advertisement features Acton’s birth mother, Donna Arthur, calling her “a liar” and insinuating she has mental health issues. Acton, Ohio’s former public health director, has made no secret of facing homelessness and abuse as a child. Arthur lost custody of her children after their stepfather was indicted for raping Acton.
Acton spent Tuesday condemning Ramaswamy for the ad even before his campaign confirmed its provenance.
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President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday announced a $25 million program to encourage the public to blow the whistle on suspected fraud in the U.S. government as they ramp up efforts to end the abuse of federal programs and dollars.
The White House said that under the Fraud Whistleblower Incentive Program, anyone who submits a tip that leads to a fraud conviction or a significant federal enforcement action is eligible to receive up to $30,000, and that the Justice Department will administer the program.
During the announcement, Trump said payments will amount to a 1% commission on the amount of fraud the tip helps uncover. Trump also said he will decide who gets reward money in cases where more than one person claims to have provided the tip.
“I will be the arbitrator of all of these decisions,” Trump said in the Oval Office with Vance and other administration officials standing behind him. “It’ll be a binding arbitration.”
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President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, at Joint Base Andrews, Md. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump speaks in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, in Washington, as Vice President JD Vance listens. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)
