We are pleased to invite you to attend the 1^st Annual Southern Illinois Debate League (SIDL) Championship Tournament, hosted by McKendree University on Saturday, April 6!

SIDL Champs will feature five preliminary rounds in three divisions of debate: Varsity/Junior Lincoln-Douglas, Novice Lincoln-Douglas, and Open Public Forum. In each division, we will hold a final round to determine this year’s SIDL champions!

In addition to final placements and speakers, we will present awards for Team Sweepstakes and Coach of the Year.

We will use the March/April Lincoln-Douglas topic and the March Public Forum topic.

Sincerely,

Joe Blasdel

Director of Speech & Debate

Brent Nicholson

Coach of Speech & Debate

Lance Allen

Assistant Coach

Tournament Schedule

8:30 Registration (Piper Academic Center 220)

9:00 Round 1 LD/PF

10:00 Round 2 LD/PF

11:15Round 3 LD/PF (power-matched)

12:15 Lunch in Ames Dining Hall

1:00 Round 4 LD/PF (power-matched)

2:15 Round 5 LD/PF (power-matched)

3:30 Final Rounds

4:30 Reception & Snacks

5:00 Awards

Topics

(Lincoln Douglas) Resolved: The primary objective of the United States criminal justice system ought to be rehabilitation.

(Public Forum) Resolved: In the United States, collegiate student-athletes should be classified as employees of their educational institution.

Registration

We will use Tabroom for registration and tabulation:

Registration is currently open. Entries are due by Wednesday, April 3 at 6:00 p.m.

Entry fees are $30 per debater. This will cover lunch, trophies, and snacks throughout the day.

Teams should provide one judge per two entries. (We can assist in finding judges if needed.)

Please make checks payable to:

McKendree University Debate Team

701 College Road

Lebanon, IL 62254

Judges

Judges must be 18 years of age or older and cannot be currently enrolled in high school. Judges must have a Tabroom account and a device for submitting ballots electronically. Judges should post a paradigm to Tabroom that includes their background in debate and stylistic preferences. AFTER submitting ballots, judges may disclose their decision and provide a brief oral critique.

Tournament Sweepstakes

Our tournament sweepstakes formula is simple and meant to reward excellence as a team. Each preliminary win is worth 1 point. We’ll count points for your top 4 teams from any division (NLD, OLD, OPF) up to 8 entries total.

The somewhat unique twist is that this is a traveling sweepstakes cup, and your points get counted year after year. When a team wins the cup by finishing that year’s SIDL Championship with the most sweepstakes points, their points will reset to 0.