Kilkenny were the defending champions[1] and successfully retained their title following a 3–22 to 3–11 victory over Galway in a replay of the final.

Laois and Westmeath were the first teams to exit the 2011 championship, however, there was no relegation play-off.

Kerry, the winners of the 2011 Christy Ring Cup, declined their automatic right to promotion to the championship.

The All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship of 2012 will be run on a provincial basis as usual.

It will be a knockout tournament with pairings drawn at random in the respective provinces – there will be no seeds.

If that match ends in a draw a period of extra time will be played, however, if both sides are still level at the end of extra time another replay will take place.

The losing team will enter the All-Ireland qualifiers while the winners will advance to the semi-finals.

All-Ireland Qualifiers Preliminary round: (2 matches) These will be two matches between the first four teams drawn from the six teams who lose their provincial preliminary round games and provincial quarter-final games.

Phase 1: (2 matches) The two winners of the preliminary qualifiers will join the two remaining provincial first round and provincial quarter-final losers to make up the phase 1 pairings.