We are excited to invite you to our 3rd-ever (hard to say annual after a 2-year hiatus) Mustang Debate Invitational on October 7-8, 2022. 

Please pay special attention to the Topics, Schedule, and Fees tabs, as this tournament will offer a number of unique events and a different schedule than the typical MHSAA tournament. Be sure to read descriptions of each event as well.

Yes, Jackson is in the middle of a water crisis. The crisis did not start in August 2022, and it will not be fully resolved by October 2022, but we’re optimistic that we’ll have running water by tournament time. As we’ve done in the past, we’ll provide some bottled water to each team and have additional water and drinks for sale at concessions.

The Mississippi State Fair is scheduled to be in Jackson October 6-16. We’d encourage you to book hotel rooms early. Come enjoy the tournament first! You’ll still have plenty of time the rest of the week to have fun at the fair :)

Middle School Events

For students in grades 5-8, we will offer Public Forum, Big Questions, and Congress on Saturday only. 

High School Events

For students in grades 9-12, in addition to the MHSAA main debate events of Public Forum, Lincoln-Douglas, Policy, and Congress, we will also offer Big Questions, Extemp Debate, and World Schools.

Judging

Judges must be provided in order to register entries according to quotas for each event. There will be no judging fees or hired judges. Schools with inadequate judging will forfeit entries. Please see the judging tab for more information. High-school students who are not competing at the tournament may judge middle-school events, provided at least one year of experience in Speech & Debate and 150 or more NSDA points.

Scheduling Notes

Middle-school events will take place on Saturday only, with 4 prelim rounds of PF/BQ, followed by semis and finals. Middle-school Congress will have two 1-hour prelim sessions and one 1-hour final session.

For the purposes of our tournament, high-school PF, LD, Policy, Congress, and Big Questions will be “main” events that will start on Friday and continue to Saturday. Extemp Debate and World Schools will be limited, Saturday-only events. All high-school debaters may compete in one “main” Friday-Saturday event and one "limited" Saturday-only event. The latter are not “supplemental” events, in the NSDA sense - all high-school students will be able to compete in two events, regardless of breaks to elim rounds. (Students may also choose to compete in only one event - “main” or “limited.” They are not required to register for a main event in order to compete in Extemp Debate or World Schools.)

PF, LD, and BQ will be guaranteed 5 prelims rounds (4 on Friday, 1 Saturday morning), and elim rounds up to Quarters, depending on entry numbers. We will offer novice divisions in PF and LD only. Novice LD will use the Civil Disobedience topic.

CX will be guaranteed 4 prelim rounds (3 on Friday, 1 Saturday morning) and elim rounds up to Semis, depending on entry numbers.

Congress will have 2 two-hour prelim sessions on Friday and 2 90-minute final sessions on Saturday.

Extemp Debate will have 2 guaranteed prelim rounds with a 3rd round for students with records of 1-1 or 2-0 after prelims. All 3 rounds are on Saturday.

World Schools teams will all compete in 3 rounds on Saturday.

Governing Rules

In high-school PF, CX, and LD, the Mustang Invitational is a qualifier for the MHSAA State Speech & Debate Tournament (to be held April 28-29, 2023, at Oak Grove High School). 

For all MHSAA events, we will follow the rules of the MSHAA Manual.

For Big Questions Debate, World Schools Debate, and Extemp Debate, we will follow the rules of the NSDA. See event description tabs to the right. 

We hope to see you in Jackson in October!