The 1981 AIAW National Division I Basketball Championship was held on March 18–29, 1981. Twenty-four teams were invited, with eight teams receiving first round byes. First round games were played at on-campus locations.

Louisiana Tech University Louisiana Tech University (Louisiana Tech, La. Tech, or simply Tech) is a public research university in Ruston, Louisiana. It is part of the University of Louisiana System and classified among "R2: Doctoral Universities – High research activ ...

was crowned national champion at the conclusion of the tournament. Louisiana Tech finished undefeated (34–0), becoming the third undefeated national champion. The host site for the Final Four was

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Oregon. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie and Willamette rivers, about east of the Oregon Coast. As of the 2020 United States Census, Eu ...

, and the championship game was again broadcast live on

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

. This was the first year that the

National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) established in 1940, is a college athletics association for colleges and universities in North America. Most colleges and universities in the NAIA offer athletic scholarships to its stu ...

sponsored a competing women's basketball

championship In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

for its collegiate members and the last year before the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

began sponsoring tournaments for its three divisions and their members.

Opening rounds

Central Regional

West Regional

South Regional

East Regional

Final Four – Eugene, OR

References

{{1981 Louisiana Tech Lady Techsters basketball navbox AIAW women's basketball tournament

AIAW The Association for Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW) was founded in 1971 to govern collegiate women's athletics in the United States and to administer national championships (see AIAW Champions). It evolved out of the Commission on Interc ...

AIAW National Division I Basketball Championship 1981 in sports in Oregon Women's sports in Oregon