Fayetteville High School Debate and Forensics

March Madness 2020

March 13th and 14th, 2020

Fayetteville High School

#1 Bulldog Ave. Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701

Contact:  479-685-8205

samantha.johnson@fayar.net

The Fayetteville High School Debate and Forensics Team is pleased to invite you to the 2020 March Madness Tournament & Junior High Invitational on Friday, March 13th and Saturday, March 14th, 2020.

Event Information: The Fayetteville Tournament is a qualifying tournament for the ACTAA State Tournament of Champions this April. We will utilize a two-fold method of tabulation. One method will be cumulative. This is the most common method used in Arkansas. Each of your entries dependent on their rank, win-loss record, and placement will receive points for your school. The other method will be based upon squad efficiency. This will be determined based upon the ratio of breaks per individual student competing for your school. Therefore we will be offering the following sweepstakes categories: Cumulative Sweeps, Squad Efficiency Sweeps, & Junior High Cumulative Sweeps. If you have specific questions about this method, please contact rachelmauchline@gmail.com and samantha.johnson@g.fayar.net.

Registration:  We will be using Tabroom for registration and tabulation purposes! Tabroom will have public access to tournament related documents, pairings, and results for the tournament.  Your students, coaches, and judges will be able to sign up for “live updates” so they know any information relating to them. Search “Fayetteville March Madness” on Tabroom. The deadline for entries is FRIDAY, March 6th at 4:00pm.  

Changes to Registration: There will be fees for registration changes made after the deadline. Additions and/or drops made after 4pm on Friday March 6th will have a $10 fee per change. There is no fee for a name change. If you have any drops/adds/name changes, you will need to email these directly to rachelmauchline@gmail.com and samantha.johnson@g.fayar.net ASAP.

Judge Requirements: One qualified judge must be provided for every ten IE/Congress entries and every four debate teams. There will be a $10 judge fee for every judge commitment that a team fails to provide. Please keep in mind that we would much rather have your judges than the fee! Entries will not be capped and students may enter multiple events in a given round, but and rounds will not be held late to accommodate students with multiple entries. Refunds will not be granted for students who miss rounds due to multiple entries.

Congressional Debate: We will be offering both High School and Junior High Congressional debate this year. We will be accepting student submissions for legislation and supplementing if necessary with the TFA Spring 2020 Docket. Each school will be able to submit up to three pieces of NSDA-style legislation. Please email submissions to samantha.johnson@fayar.net  by Tuesday, March 3rd at 4:00pm. The docket will be released soon after.

Topics Used: Lincoln Douglas Debaters will use the March/April NSDA Topic. Public Forum Debaters will use the March NSDA Topic. Policy Debaters will use the 2019-2020 NSDA Topic. Big Questions Debaters will use the 2019-2020 NSDA Topic. Congressional Debaters will use the provided docket. Impromptu and Extemp will use topic areas released at a later date.

Inclusivity Statement: We will be providing gender neutral bathrooms and the locations will be sent to coaches and updated in our invitation ASAP.  Also, if handicap accessible rooms are needed, please reach out so we can make our tournament as accessible to everyone as possible! We have an elevator located in our Performing Arts Center and two in our main building for anyone to use throughout the tournament.

NSDA Pilot Rules: We will be utilizing the new NSDA Pilot Rules, including the rules on internet usage in debate rounds and Extemp. We are currently trying to secure internet access from our school, but cannot guarantee it at this time. We will keep you updated on this! Be sure to be aware of the new NSDA rules and times regarding certain events such as Public Forum. If you have any questions about these rules, please email samantha.johnson@fayar.net

Tabulation Notes: We will predict to have divided divisions between novice and varsity in debate- but have the ability to collapse to an open division based on entry numbers. We will not break brackets in elimination rounds and will default roll/walkover elimination rounds unless contacted by a coach. You will also need to provide your own judge if you decide to not do a roll for an elimination round. If you know prior to the tournament that you won’t want to do rolls, please contact rachelmauchline@gmail.com and let her know so it speeds up the tabulation process.

Arrival at FHS: Please do NOT arrive on campus before 4:15pm! Have your bus driver drop off students in front of the high school on Buchanan Ave and students will be outside to direct you to registration and our judges table. Registration will take place in the Tab Room with Antha Johnson. Please come by even if your check is in the mail so we can confirm your registration! We will be providing wonderful concessions, so we ask that students AND coaches do not bring any outside food! Please help us support our program by informing students AND parents of this request.  

We look forward to seeing you at FHS this March!

Samantha Johnson- Fayetteville High School Director of Speech and Debate

Rachel Mauchline- March Madness Tabulation Coordinator