| Year: | 1980–81 |
| Team: | Notre Dame Fighting Irish |
| Sport: | basketball |
| Conference: | Independent |
| Coachrank: | 9 |
| Aprank: | 7 |
| Record: | 23–6 |
| Head Coach: | Digger Phelps |
| Hc Year: | 10th |
| Asst Coach1: | Pete Gillen |
| Ac1 Year: | 1st |
| Captain: | Kelly Tripucka |
| Arena: | Joyce Center |
| Tourney Result: | Sweet Sixteen |
The 1980–81 Notre Dame Fighting Irish men's basketball team represented the University of Notre Dame during the 1980–81 NCAA Division I men's basketball season. The team was coached by Digger Phelps and was ranked in the Associated Press poll for the entirety of the season. As a 2 seed, the Fighting Irish defeated the 10 seed James Madison in the second round, 54–45. Notre Dame would fall to BYU in the 1981 NCAA Division I Basketball Tournament.
|-!colspan=9 style=| Regular Season|-!colspan=9 style=| NCAA Tournament[1]
See main article: 1980–81 NCAA Division I men's basketball rankings. [2]
| 1 | 6 | Chicago Bulls | |
| 1 | 12 | Detroit Pistons | |
| 2 | 25 | Boston Celtics | |
| 8 | 167 | Gilbert Salinas | Atlanta Hawks |