MYTHICAL NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP

A 'mythical national championship' (often abbreviated 'MNC') is a national championship that is won without a tournament to determine an undisputed national champion. This term is most often used in the United States to describe the NCAA Division I-A college football champion, however, it can also be used to describe champions in other sports as well.

Contents

College football

High school football

College basketball

See also

College football

Main articles: NCAA Division I-A national football championship

In the case of Division I-A college football, the mythical national champion is a colloquial term for the top-finishing team in either the AP Poll, a survey of sportswriters, or the ''USA Today'' Coaches Poll, determined by Division I-A head coaches.
These two differing authorities have often led to conflicting claims to the championship (a split title or "co-champions"). The current Bowl Championship Series system is an attempt to fix the perceived problem, by placing the number 1 and number 2 teams in a season-ending bowl game to determine the champion. These teams are determined by the BCS ranking system, which itself uses a combination of human voter polls and computer rankings. Currently the Harris Interactive College Football Poll and the Coaches Poll are the major human-driven contributors to the poll. Following the game, the Coaches Poll is under contract to name the champion of the BCS National Championship Game as its national champion.
The AP, whose poll was part of the BCS until 2004, withdrew the poll from the BCS system after controversies about the rankings. The AP still ranks teams, although its results now have no influence on the BCS formula. Were a team to finish the season with the top ranking in one of the polls but not the other, there would be a "split championship." This happened most recently when the Southern California Trojans were ranked #1 in the AP poll and the LSU Tigers were ranked #1 by the BCS.

High school football

Main articles: High school football national championship

Because high school football in the United States is mostly a state-centered sport involving thousands of schools, it would be almost impossible to have a national championship play-off. Some publications and internet sites release nationwide rankings based on polls or mathematical formulas which take into account various factors like average margin of victory and strength of schedule. Schools that finish atop these rankings, particularly the USA Today poll, are sometimes considered to be the Mythical National Champions.

College basketball

Prior to 1939 the NCAA did not sanction a post-season tournament to determine a national champion. Some schools claim basketball national championships based on polls from this era, the most notable being the Helms Athletic Foundation, which named its own champion from 1901 to 1982 (1901-1935 were retroactively awarded). For example, the University of North Carolina claims the 1924 championship and Purdue claims the 1932 championship. LSU officially claims the 1935 championship awarded to them by winning the 'American Legion Bowl National Championship' game against Pittsburgh.

See also

★ NCAA Division I-A national football championship

★ BCS National Championship Game

★ Automatic bids to non-BCS bowls

★ Dickinson System

★ AP Poll

★ Coaches Poll

★ Grantland Rice Award

★ Harris Interactive College Football Poll