Topics

Policy Debate will use the NSDA 2025-26 topic -- Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly increase its exploration and/or development of the Arctic.

LD Debate will use the NSDA September/October 2025 topic -- Resolved: In the United States criminal justice system, plea bargaining is just.

PF Debate will use the NSDA September/October 2025 topic -- Resolved: The United Kingdom should rejoin the European Union.

No novice topics will be used in any division.

WSD will follow the scaffold and TFA Constitution recommendations. We will break to TFA points for elimination rounds. Elim 1 will always be the first elimination round, whether that is quarterfinals, semifinals, or finals, and so on.

Round 1 AND 2 (students will debate both sides): This House, as a government, would prioritize financing space exploration over financing deep sea exploration.

Round 3: Impromptu

Round 4: This House regrets the decline of labor unions.

Elim 1: Impromptu

Elim 2: This House, as a democratic government, would ban political advertising on social media platforms.

Elim 3 (if needed): This House regrets the rise of surge pricing.

Congress will follow the TFA Scaffold for Fall 2025. All legislation will be pulled from this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1HNuxWXhMKIL4Fp608klYFve7xo_Lx6Z_/view

Prelims: 8, 9, 10, 6, 7

Semifinals (if needed): 19, 18, 16, 20, 17

Finals: 11, 13, 12, 14, 15

Additionally, we will be using Rule 2(l) on page 68 of the TFA Constitution and limiting floor debate per item of legislation to no more than one-third of a session's total floor time. We anticipate that will be 1 hour per piece of legislation.

Per the Full Cycle Amendment that passed at TSCA last year, there is a minimum cycle of one affirmative and one negative speech before items can be tabled

DX topic areas:

Round 1 - US Politics

Round 2 - Economics

Round 3 - Environmental/Social Issues

Semis - Judicial Issues

Finals - Foreign Relations

FX topic areas:

Round 1 - Africa

Round 2 - Latin America

Round 3 - Asia

Semis (if needed) - Climate Change

Finals - Triads

NX will be a mixed format and involve topics from both IX and DX.