1980–81 National Football League (Ireland)

The 1980–81 National Football League was the 50th staging of the National Football League (NFL), an annual Gaelic football tournament for the Gaelic Athletic Association county teams of Ireland.

Galway defeated Roscommon in an all-Connacht final.

Titles
Teams in all four divisions competed for one league title.

Divisions

 * Division One: 8 teams
 * Division Two: 8 teams
 * Division Three: 8 teams
 * Division Four: 8 teams

Round-robin format
Each team played every other team in its division once, either home or away.

Points awarded
2 points were awarded for a win and 1 for a draw.

Knockout stage qualifiers

 * Division One: top 4 teams ''
 * Division Two: top 2 teams
 * Division Three: top team
 * Division Four: top team

Knockout phase structure
In the Preliminary quarter-finals, the match-ups were as follows
 * Preliminary Quarter-final 1: Fourth-placed team in Division One v First-placed team in Division Four
 * Preliminary Quarter-final 2: Second-placed team in Division Two v First-placed team in Division Three

In the quarter-finals, the match-ups were as follows
 * Quarter-final 1: Winner Preliminary Quarter-final 1 v First-placed team in Division Two
 * Quarter-final 2: Winner Preliminary Quarter-final 2 v Third-placed team in Division One

The semi-final match-ups are:
 * Semi-final 1: First-placed team in Division One v Winner Quarter-final 1
 * Semi-final 2: Second-placed team in Division One v Winner Quarter-final 2

Separation of teams on equal points
In the event that teams finish on equal points, then a play-off will be used to determine group placings if necessary, i.e. where to decide relegation places or quarter-finalists.