The old format, which involved a two-legged first round, was scrapped in favour of an opening round containing four groups of four clubs, played out as a league, and with one team
relegated. Two of the four teams in each group advanced to the quarter-finals after each have played the others once. Teams finishing bottom of their group played two relegation semi-finals. The losing relegation semi-final teams met in the relegation final. The losing team was relegated to the
Donegal Intermediate Football Championship to be replaced either by the Intermediate Championship winning team or the team finishing seventh in the All-County League Division Two. The match schedule was released in March 2013 and matches began over the June Bank Holiday weekend. Donegal captain
Michael Murphy begged the Donegal County Board to reconsider the scheduling of the Donegal SFC, as his team set out to defend the
Sam Maguire Cup. Murphy described it as "probably not ideal from our situation", and despaired over "the hand we're dealt with" but said he would "like them to look after us in that way". They didn't. ==Draw==