The 3NR

A few questions that arose while I was working on some statistical projects involving this year’s tournament results prompted me to finish something I’ve been meaning to do for a long time: create a spreadsheet listing the history of Tournament of Champions qualifying tournaments by bid level. Thanks to e-Debate and the HS Debate Archive, I was able to find the list of qualifying tournaments for every season since 1997-1998. In the thirteen seasons for which data is available, a total of 76 different tournaments have been designated as a TOC qualifier; a spreadsheet with year-by-year bid levels is available for your viewing pleasure in html format from Google Docs.

Some trivia, with answers below the fold:

1. Before the addition of the Blake Holiday Classic this season, what was the last tournament other than Greenhill, St. Mark’s, Glenbrooks, MBA, Emory, Harvard, and Berkeley to be classified as an octafinals bid?

2. In addition to the seven octafinals bid tournaments from question #1 (Greenhill, St. Mark’s, Glenbrooks, MBA, Emory, Harvard, and Berkeley), how many tournaments have been TOC qualifiers for all thirteen years? Can you name them?

3. During the last 13 years, how many states have hosted at least one TOC qualifying tournament?

4. In 1997-1998 and 1998-1999, what university hosted two separate TOC qualifying tournaments?

5. What is the largest number of tournaments that have lost their bid status from one year to the next? In what year did it occur?

6. What is the largest number of tournaments have been added to the list of qualifiers from one year to the next? In what year did it occur?

7. The Blake Holiday Classic has steadily progressed from a finals bid (from 1997 through 2000) to a semifinals bid (from 2001 through 2004) to a quarterfinals bid (from 2005 through 2008) to an octafinals bid (beginning this season). What team won the Holiday Classic in its last season as a finals bid? As a semifinals bid? As a quarterfinals bid?

8. For the 2000-2001 season, the National Debate Coaches’ Association Championship was a final round qualifying tournament for the TOC. Where was it held and who received the two qualifying legs?

9. While a debater at Palmetto High School in Miami, the 3NR’s Roy Levkovitz qualified for the 2001 Tournament of Champions. At what tournaments did he receive a bid?

10. What current coach served as an assistant to TOC Director J.W. Patterson in 1997-1998 and designed the first official TOC website?

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Since 1973, the National Debate Tournament has awarded First Round At-Large Bids to the top sixteen college debate teams in the country; these “first round” teams are not required to compete at their district qualifying tournament. According to the 1973 NDT Book, “Sixteen teams were selected at-large by the National Debate Tournament committee on the basis of outstanding records prior to the District tournaments.” This year’s first round bids were awarded last week. Some interesting facts about this year’s recipients:

• The 32 first-round recipients represent 18 different states. Kansas has the most alums represented with seven followed by Georgia with four, Florida with three, and Illinois, Louisiana, and Pennsylvania with two.
• The 32 first-round recipients hail from 25 different secondary schools. Chattahoochee and Shawnee Mission East each have three alums represented while Cathedral Prep, Caddo Magnet, and Glenbrook North each have two. No other school is represented more than once.
• Twenty-four of the first-round bid recipients are graduates of public schools while the remaining eight attended private schools.
• Only ten of the 32 first-round bid recipients cleared at the Tournament of Champions while they were in high school.

The complete list of this year’s first-round bid recipients as well as the high schools they attended is available below the fold.

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This January the Montgomery Bell Academy will host the 28th Southern Bell Forum at their campus in Nashville, Tennessee. Since its inception in 1983, the SBF has been considered one of the most prestigious invitational policy debate tournaments in the country. Featuring some of the most intense competition of the year, the Forum limits its field to 72 entries and invites each school to register only its top team.

For those debaters and coaches that will be attending this year’s tournament, rigorous preparation should be well underway. Alas, this post will not assist you in that regard. Instead, the following is an attempt to chronicle some of the rich history of the Southern Bell Forum so that current attendees can better appreciate the legacy of this unique event.

Warning: Extreme Debate Geekery Below The Fold.

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