Judging Obligations & Qualifications

JUDGE QUALIFICATIONS

For the Varsity Speech & Debate State Championship, all judges must be adults and no longer enrolled in high school and meet criteria as established below.

In order to be eligible to judge Policy Debate at the Varsity Speech & Debate State Championship, individuals must have judged at least four (4) rounds at the middle school and/or high school level in Policy Debate since June of the year before the state tournament and at least (8) rounds at the middle school and/or high school level in Policy Debate in the current and/or preceding school year.

In order to be eligible to judge Lincoln-Douglas Debate at the Varsity Speech & Debate State Championship, individuals must have judged at least (8) rounds at the middle school and/or high school level in that debate event in the current and/or preceding school year.

In order to be eligible to judge Public Forum Debate at the Varsity Speech & Debate State Championship, individuals must have judged at least (8) rounds at the middle school and/or high school level in that debate event in the current and/or preceding school year.

In order to be eligible to judge Individual Events at the Varsity Speech & Debate State Championship, individuals must have completed requisite NSDA Judge Accreditation modules as determined by the Executive Committee by the start of the State Championship.

In order to be eligible to judge Student Congress at the Varsity Speech & Debate State Championship, individuals must have completed requisite NSDA Judge Accreditation modules as determined by the Executive Committee by the start of the State Championship.

JUDGE ENTOURAGE RULE

At the Varsity Speech & Debate State Championship, any adult attending the tournament that contributes to the competitive debate effort in Policy, Public Forum, or Lincoln Douglas for a school must be entered into a judge pool for a minimum of two preliminary and/or elimination rounds; for Speech, anyone attending the tournament that contributes to the competitive effort for a school must be entered in the judge pool for a minimum of one preliminary round or elimination round. This includes any volunteers contributing debate or speech work. If the judge’s rounds are included in their team's obligation owed, the judge will be obligated for elimination rounds. This rule does not apply to coaches contributing to the running of the tournament as determined by the Director of Operations. Parents (who are not also coaches) do not need to be in the pool. Any school found violating this rule will lose their judge bond and mutual judge preferences will be removed for all competitors.

JUDGE OBLIGATION

Because this is a State Championship and we want to guarantee the best possible, see the bylaw below (3.2.5.2)

At the Varsity Speech & Debate State Championship, judges fulfilling a school’s obligation are obligatedtwo full roundspast that school’s exit from the tournament in that judging pool.The round obligations are for preliminary rounds only.All judges are obligated for the first two elimination rounds unless covered by additional judges in missing timeslots. If judges need to be timeblocked, other judges should be entered to fulfill that timeblock obligation. For example, if a school owes 6 rounds of policy debate for a 5 round preliminary tournament, the school would need to supply two judges to fulfill those preliminary round obligations and both judges would be obligated to judge at least the first two elimination rounds. If a judge cannot cover the elimination round obligation, an additional judge should be supplied to cover that obligation.