Invitation

Date: October 4-5, 2025

Hosted by: The University of North Texas Online

Format: The tournament will offer a virtual format to maximize opportunities for teams to enter.
We will offer competition in both NFA-LD and IPDA divisions.

The University of North Texas welcomes you to the UNT DeMougeot Debates Debate Tournament.We will be suing Tabroom as the platform for the tournament with all rounds on Zoom. Please direct any questions to: brian.lain@unt.edu

Several innovations make it worth considering for this year:

• Added IPDA divisions.

• Shortening the schedule – to accommodate folks on the West Coast, we will begin at 10am both on Saturday and Sunday

• Judges must provide a paradigm on Tabroom and have a linked tabroom account to adjudicate debates - to maximize engagement with our judging pool, we ask that all judges upload a judging philosophy so that students can better communicate their ideas and engage their judges.

• Judges are required to have their cameras on during debates – verbal AND non-verbal feedback are essential to the communicative practices that undergird our activity, without the ability to see and react to judges, debaters are left without much of the information they need to better communicate and refine their arguments. Debaters are encouraged to report to the tournament administrator if judges refuse to turn their cameras on, and judges will be removed from the tournament if they are found to repeatedly violate it.

Logistics

The tournament will run on Saturday and Sunday on Zoom.

The password and waiting room features should be turned off for the tournament, but if you are stuck inthe waiting room for some reason, just send me a message via email, tabroom, or facebook.

Awards

Teams clearing to elimination will be provided with awards.

The appropriate number of speaker awards will be recognized in each division.

Student Eligibility

LD Eligibility

Students must be currently enrolled at the college or university for which they are competing. Students may not have attended a collegiate national forensic/debate tournament in four or more academic years OR completed eight semesters of collegiate competition. A semester is defined as having competed in

more than two tournaments. Either of these standards being met (eight semesters of college

competition or four years of collegiate national tournament participation) will render a student ineligible to compete in this tournament unless they are utilizing the extra semester rule authorized by the NFA-LD committee in the wake of the COVID pandemic.

IPDA Eligibility
IPDA Division Eligibility Rationale: It is the intent of the International Public Debate Association to fairly categorize competitors based on their level of overall experience. The divisions adopted in the IPDA Bylaws reflect the idea that skill development in the art of argumentation is a product of time and experience. Coaches should assess any form of argumentation experience that their students may have as they are entered into the appropriate, competitive divisions.

1. Novice Division entries must adhere to the following definition: Competitors must be currently enrolled students at the institution they are representing and must be representing an official program affiliated with an academic institution; they will no longer be eligible to compete in the Novice Division once they: a. have competed in eight debate tournaments in any capacity at any level in any combination (e.g., high school or college; novice, junior or open, CX, Policy, Value, NDT, CEDA, Parliamentary, NFA, L-D, etc.). If a student has competed in eight tournaments AND the IPDA National Tournament would constitute their ninth tournament, then they will be deemed eligible for the Novice Division. And/or: b. Are no longer eligible to compete in the varsity division.

2. Junior Varsity Division entries must adhere to the following definition: Competitors must be currently enrolled students at the institution they are representing and must be representing an official program affiliated with an academic institution; they will no longer be eligible to compete in the Junior Varsity Division once they: a. have competed in eight tournaments beyond their novice eligibility OR have competed in sixteen debate tournaments in any capacity at the collegiate level in any combination (e.g. novice, junior or open, IPDA, CX, Policy, Value, NDT, CEDA, Parliamentary, NFA, L-D, etc.). If a student has competed in sixteen tournaments AND the IPDA National Tournament would constitute their seventeenth tournament, then they will be deemed eligible for the Junior Varsity Division. b. Are no longer eligible to compete in the varsity division.

3. Varsity Division entries must adhere to the following definition: Competitors must be currently enrolled students at the institution they are representing and must be representing an official program affiliated with an academic institution; they will no longer be eligible to compete in the Varsity Division: a. once they have been awarded a 4-year, undergraduate, Bachelor's-level degree; but, this restriction does not include 2-year, Associate-level degrees. Students who earn a Bachelor’s degree in the middle of the IPDA competitive season, who otherwise meet the requirements for Varsity eligibility and who have never competed at the IPDA National Tournament in the Varsity Division may apply to the IPDA Executive Committee for eligibility to enter the Varsity Division in that season’s National Tournament (if granted, this exemption will apply only to the IPDA National Tournament for that season, and not to regular season or other tournaments); any request for exemption must be received a minimum of one week prior to the entry deadline for the national tournament. b. and/or following competition in any format of debate while representing a college/university during ten semesters of competition or fifteen quarters of competition (depending upon the classification system of their academic institution). For institutions observing the semester system, a semester of eligibility is used when a student competes in more than 2 debate tournaments during that period; for institutions observing the quarter system, a quarter of eligibility is used when a student competes in 2 or more debate tournaments during that period.

4. The Professional Division shall be open to any individual, provided they meet the general requirements for competitors listed elsewhere in the Constitution and Bylaws.

Fees and Judging

Entries are $15/person for those competing ONLINE (competitors, judge, or observers) to cover the cost of hired judging.

**There is a charge of $100 per uncovered entry.

The entry fees are assessed at 5pm on Wednesday, October 1^st, and per school entries will be reduced if sufficient judging has not been provided. We reserve the right to charge $50/uncovered round (or

reduce school entries) if judges are dropped after that point, and we do not anticipate having reserve judging beyond the judge hiring system in tabroom.

NFA Lincoln-Douglas

An open, junior, and novice division of NFA Lincoln Douglas will be offered. JV and Novice divisions will be collapsed if there are insufficient entries. Debates will use a 6-3-7-3-6-6-3 format with 4 minutes of preparation. We will use the 2025-2065 NFA LD topic. Topic can be found on the National Forensic Association website.

Divisions Defined

Any student may enter an open division. Junior division is open to students in their first four semesters of collegiate debate (of any kind). Novice division is open to students with less than two semesters of any debate at any level (high school or college).

Format & Judging

The tournament will have 5 preliminary rounds with the appropriate number of elimination rounds, so

each individual LD entry requires 3 rounds of judging. If you bring judges above your commitment, encourage them to list on tabroom’s judging exchange. We encourage schools to handle any hiring.

All debate judges are committed through the first elimination debate and/or one rounds past their school’s elimination from the tournament. We will work to clear schools with long drives when

possible. Schools are encouraged to hire judges with debate experience, and the tournament will offer two judge strikes, prioritizing entries still able to clear.

Brackets will NOT be broken

Entry Deadlines

Entries must be received by 5:00 p.m. CST on Wednesday, October1st, 2025

Any changes after Wednesday, October 1st, should be e-mailed to Brian Lain at: brian.lain@unt.edu

NFA- LD
Tentative Schedule Saturday, October 4th

9:00am Please confirm entries/drops by this time

10:00am Round 1

12:00pm Round 2

2:30pm Round 3

4:30pm Round 4

Sunday, October 5th

10:00am Round 5

12:00pm Elim 1 ASAP Awards
2:30pm Elim 2

4:30pm Elim 3

6:00pm Elim 4

IPDA Schedule
Oct 4, 2025

8:00am Please confirm entries/drops by this time

9:00am Round 1

10:00pm Round 2

11:00pm Round 3

1:30pm Round 4

2:30pm Round 5

3:30pm Elim 1

5:00pm Elim 2

6:30pm IPDA Awards

Other Information

1. Each institution must provide adequate judging to cover their entries.

2. All debate judges are committed through the first elimination debate and/or one rounds past their school’s elimination from the tournament.

3. We will gladly hire you if you can judge beyond your commitment. If you know of qualified individuals who would like to be hired, please have them contact the Tournament Director.

4. Team Disclosure: Affirmative case disclosure is expected.

5. All debate rounds must have one winner and one loser.

6. Unless otherwise indicated by teams, higher seeds will advance from the same school automatically in elimination rounds.

-Brian Lain, Director of Debate