Meath entered the championship as the defending champions; however, they were beaten by Offaly in the Leinster quarter-final.

On 24 September 2000, the All-Ireland final between Kerry and Galway ended in a draw, 0-14 apiece.

[1] This was the final year that the provincial knockout format was used, before the qualifier system was introduced in 2001.

The Ulster, Munster and Connacht championships were conducted as straight knock-out competitions.

In the Leinster championship, seven teams received byes to the quarter-finals, while the other four — Wicklow, Wexford, Longford and Carlow — played a round-robin to determine the 8th team to play in the Leinster quarter-finals.