Hello Colleagues,

We are pleased to invite you to attend the 3^rd Annual Southern Illinois Debate League (SIDL) Championship Tournament, hosted by McKendree University on Saturday, December 13^th!

SIDL Champs will feature five preliminary rounds in four divisions of debate: Open Lincoln-Douglas, Novice Lincoln-Douglas, Open Public Forum, and Novice 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 November/December topics in Lincoln-Douglas and Public Forum.

Sincerely,

Joe Blasdel, Director of Speech & Debate

Brent Nicholson, Head Debate Coach

Lance Allen, Assistant Coach

Tournament Contact

Any questions, requests, or other tournament contact should be directed to Brent Nicholson at banicholson@mckendree.edu.

Tournament Schedule

8:00 Breakfast (Piper Academic Center 222) and Registration (Piper Academic Center 220)

9:00 Round 1 LD/PF

10:00 Round 2 LD/PF

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

12:15 Lunch in Ames Dining Hall

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

2:20 Round 5 LD/PF (power-matched)

3:45 Final Rounds

4:30 Reception & Snacks

5:00 Awards (Piper Academic Center 222)

Topics

We will use the November-December NSDA topics.

Registration

We will use Tabroom for registration and tabulation:

Registration will start on November 24. Entries are due on December 10 at 6:00 p.m.

Entry fees are $30 for each Lincoln-Douglas entry and $60 for each Public Forum entry. This will cover lunch, trophies, and snacks throughout the day.

Teams should provide one judge for every two entries. We will accept uncovered entries for an additional $65 fee each, which will allow us to hire judges to cover those entries.

If you intend to have uncovered entries, please let us know as soon as possible so we can plan accordingly.

Please make checks payable to:

McKendree University Debate Team

701 College Road

Lebanon, IL 62254

You may pay by credit card. The information will be made available via Tabroom in the week before the tournament.

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 are encouraged to 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, NPF, 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. Congratulations again to Triad High School on their Sweepstakes Championship last year!

Media Release

As part of your registration, each student is expected to complete the media release waiver included on the Tabroom page. This is posted on this page in the right sidebar. Please print copies for your students, have a parent or guardian sign them, and return them on the day of registration.

Sweepstakes Standings

Belleville East – 16 points

Granite City - 10

Lebanon – 8 points

Belleville West – 3 points

Gibault – 1 point

Triad – 0 points