The season featured eight clubs and ran from 4 May to 7 September, comprising a 17-round home-and-away season followed by a two-week finals series featuring the top four clubs.

Geelong won the minor premiership by finishing atop the home-and-away ladder with a 14–3 win–loss record, but was eliminated by Collingwood in the semi-finals.

In 1901, the VFL competition consisted of eight teams of 18 on-the-field players each, with no "reserves", although any of the 18 players who had left the playing field for any reason could later resume their place on the field at any time during the match.

Once the 17 rounds of the home-and-away season had finished, the 1901 VFL Premiers were determined by the specific format and conventions of the original Argus system.

If two or more matches in a round are decided by the same margin, these margins are sorted by percentage (i.e. the lowest-scoring winning team is ranked highest and the lowest-scoring losing team is ranked lowest).