Welcome Letter

29 September 2025

Dear Colleagues:

It is our pleasure to invite you to attend the 54th annual Marshall University John Marshall Speech and Debate Tournament to be held on Friday, 20 February 2026, and Saturday, 21 February 2026, at Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia. We submit speech qualifications to both National Individual Events Tournament of Champions (NIETOC) and Tournament of Champions (TOC).

We are making several changes this year:

· We are reducing speech/debate cross-entry to ensure the tournament runs on time. BQ/LD/PF debaters may enter only Speech Section A events.

· We are dividing speech events into three sections, instead of two, sections. As a result, students, including debaters competing in Speech Section A events, may enter a maximum of two events per section.

· If we do a TV studio round of Broadcast Journalism, we will assign all students to a time slot so there is no backlog of competitors.

· The awards ceremony will not include any “speeches.”

· We may give out bison and cinnamon (baby bison) as event awards and then trophies or plaques as sweepstakes awards.

The following will not change:

· Public Forum and Lincoln-Douglas debaters will debate the March 2026 topics, not the February 2026 topics, to assist them in preparing for March national qualifiers and state tournaments.

· We will provide lunch on Saturday.

The deadline for entries is Tuesday, 17 February 2026, at 5:00 PM.

If you have any questions, please contact me. We look forward to seeing you soon!

Sincerely,

Dennis C. Taylor

Director of Forensics

Marshall University

Email: taylor41@marshall.edu

Phone: +1 304.541.0332