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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.

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 it now has no bearing on the BCS. However, were a team to finish the season with the top ranking in the AP Poll but not the BCS, they could claim a "co-champion" status, as the Southern California Trojans did in 2003 (the BCS champion was the LSU Tigers).

Because high school football in the United States is mostly a state-centered sport, it can be very difficult to crown a true national champion. 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.

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, Purdue claims the 1932 championship, and LSU claims the 1935 championship.

• NCAA Division I-A national football championship
• BCS National Championship Game
• Automatic bids to non-BCS bowls