The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation is proud to announce the second annual Coolidge Presidents' Cup. This two-day debate tournament will be held on Saturday and Sunday, November 15-16, 2025, at Coolidge House in Washington, District of Columbia. We are excited to continue growing this second signature event of the Coolidge debate calendar!

Cash Scholarship Prizes
Teams advancing to quarterfinals will receive cash scholarship prizes in the below listed amounts. These amounts do not accumulate from round to round, meaning the champion team does not receive the preceding quarterfinalist team and semifinalist team prizes in addition to the champion team prize. Prizes will be evenly distributed to each of the two team members. For example, each debater on a team eliminated in semifinals will receive $1,000. Teams must participate in the debate round for which the prize is being awarded in order to claim their prize.

Overview of the Tournament
Date: Saturday and Sunday, November 15-16, 2025.
Times: Attendees who are not local to Washington should plan to arrive on Friday evening. Tournament activities will begin at 8:00 AM on Saturday morning, with five rounds of preliminary competition scheduled for that day. Elimination rounds and awards will take place on Sunday morning, concluding no later than 1:30 PM. A detailed schedule will be available soon.
Format: 2v2 Coolidge debate format.
Location: Coolidge House at 3425 Prospect St. NW, Washington, DC, 20007.
Eligibility: All high school students (currently enrolled in grades 9-12).
Cost: Registration for the tournament is free. It includes lunch and dinner on Saturday, and lunch on Sunday.
Registration: Registration closes Tuesday, November 4, at 11:59 PM EST.
Judges: Volunteer citizen judges are provided; attendees have no requirement to provide judges but are encouraged to do so.
Attire: Business professional.

Resolution and Research Brief
At this tournament students will debate both sides of Resolved: The United States federal government should abolish its Department of Education. The Foundation has prepared a research brief on this topic to aid in your preparation. You are not limited to the arguments or evidence in the brief. In fact, you are welcome and encouraged to use the brief as a starting point and build upon it by doing your own additional research and case writing.

Philip Howard Topic Seminar
One of the hallmarks of Coolidge Debate is the quality of our speakers and commitment to providing opportunities for students to learn from public policy thought leaders. We are pleased to announce Philip Howard, chair of Common Good and bestselling author, will deliver our morning seminar on federal education policy at the Presidents’ Cup!

Lodging & Transportation
The Foundation has partnered with the Marriott Residence Inn - Arlington Rosslyn, located at 1651 North Oak Street, Arlington, Virginia, 22209, as our recommended hotel. The tournament rate of $119+tax is available for the nights of Friday, November 14, and Saturday, November 15, with competitive rates available for additional nights should you wish to extend your trip. Book at the tournament rate now through October 18. If you have questions or need special assistance, please contact Jan'nelle Marshall, the hotel's Director of Sales and Marketing.

We will provide shuttle bus service between this Residence Inn and competition venues on Saturday and Sunday (but no return service to the hotel on Sunday after the awards ceremony). This Residence Inn is a one-mile walk from Coolidge House, so intrepid travelers could also choose that option at other times. Coolidge House does not have parking. Convenient, affordable public options in the Georgetown neighborhood are limited. Georgetown University's Hilltop Campus Visitor Garage and this page with information about reserved street options may be useful resources for those who must park for the tournament.

Tournament Overview and Structure
This is a two-day tournament with one Open (Varsity) division. All students in grades 9 to 12 from any school are eligible to compete, including independent entries and homeschool students. You will begin Saturday with opening remarks from tournament officials and hosts. We will have five rounds of preliminary competition for all students on Saturday, with competitors paired randomly for round one, and paired high-low within brackets thereafter. To clarify, this means teams debate an opponent with the same win-loss record as their own from round two onwards.

The top 16 teams (or fewer if insufficient teams have a 3-2 record or better) will advance to single-elimination competition on Sunday. We anticipate that finals and awards will conclude no later than 1:30 PM in order to facilitate return travel on Sunday evening. Each debater on the top eight teams will receive an invitation and paid travel to the 2026 Coolidge Cup, which is a national invitational speech and debate tournament sponsored by the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation and held in President Coolidge’s historic hometown of Plymouth, Vermont, on July 2-4, 2026. Learn more about the Coolidge Cup here.

Format and Style
Students will compete in the Coolidge 2v2 "doubles" debate format. If you are new to debating with Coolidge, we highly recommend you review our debate education resources that provide information about this particular format, style, and rules. Maverick (individual) competitors are discouraged but permitted, although maverick entries cannot advance to elimination rounds. Consistent with Coolidge Debate, this tournament will recruit and use volunteer citizen judges. Schools are not required to provide judges for this tournament, but are encouraged to do so. Please ensure that any volunteer judges you recruit are familiar with the Coolidge format and its mission to remain accessible and persuasive for a broad civic audience.

Judges
We need volunteer judges for our debate tournaments! We welcome citizen judges of all types, including parents, grandparents, teachers, coaches, and other members of the community. Experience with debating or judging is not necessary. If you are interested, please take a look at ourinformation for judges. On each morning of the tournament, we will hold a brief judge training session, where we will give you all the guidance you need for the day and will answer all of your questions. Register here to volunteer as a judge or have your school's coach enter you on this site as part of your official entry.

Questions
If you have any questions about the tournament, the Coolidge Cup, or about judging, please contact the Coolidge Foundation's Director of Speech and Debate, Jonathan Peele.