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Help Us Compile The History of the Woodward 1st and 2nd Year National Championships

The 1st and 2nd Year National National Championships in Policy and Lincoln-Douglas Debate will be hosted this coming weekend by Woodward Academy in College Park, GA. In an attempt to preserve the institutional memory of the tournament, we have been efforting to create a comprehensive history of the event beginning with a list of each [...]

Fisher and Spies Make History at National Debate Tournament

Early this morning Matt Fisher and Stephanie Spies made history by becoming the first duo ever to win both the Tournament of Champions and the National Debate Tournament. Matt and Stephanie won the TOC in 2007 while at Glenbrook North High School and the NDT in 2011 while at Northwestern University. They also became just [...]

Fiori on Performative Contradictions

In an article on the UTNIF blog, Nick Fiori—Assistant Director of Debate at Damien High School—highlights the frequency with which contradictions are made between a critique and the rest of the arguments presented in a first negative constructive speech. Negatives often present a security critique, for example, while simultaneously presenting disadvantages premised upon security logic. [...]

The Run For The Roses: Breaking Down The Tournament of Champions, 1996-2010

This May will mark the 40th running of the Tournament of Champions at the University of Kentucky. Founded in 1972, the TOC has long been considered America’s foremost debate competition. Ever wonder which schools have had the most success at the TOC? Curious as to which state has advanced the most teams to elimination rounds? [...]

Debating Politics Impacts- Focus on Evidence/Bias

There are many reasons politics is a popular disad on every topic, one of them is that it is generally a quick way to get to nuke war. No matter what the issue is, if its on the presidents agenda its a safe bet there will be people making hyperbolic statements about it. While most [...]

UTNIF Blog: Revisiting the Rowland-Ulrich Debate

Sean Tiffee—a Ph.D. candidate in Rhetoric and Language Studies and an Assistant Debate Coach at the University of Texas—has written an interesting post on the UTNIF blog about the role of argumentation in debate. I made the decision to make my blog post about argumentation for two seemingly contradictory reasons. First, debate evolves at a [...]

Help Your Favorite Team Win The (Fundraising) NDT

The 65th National Debate Tournament will be held on March 25-28 at the University of Texas-Dallas. As part of the festivities, Debate Central and the Dallas Urban Debate Alliance have organized a Fundraising NDT that allows interested parties to support their favorite teams by

Fun With Numbers: More Statistical Breakdowns of This Year’s Season

The final qualifying tournaments for the 2011 Tournament of Champions were held this past weekend. With the postseason now beginning, we can look back at the regular season and assess the performances of some of the country’s best teams. Who earned the most bids to the TOC? Who earned the best bids to the TOC? [...]