James Madison Debate Tournament Host Letter

Dear colleagues,

You are cordially invited to participate in the Fall 2025 James Madison Invitational, October 31^st through November 2^nd. We will offer three divisions of debate, in addition to a rookie breakout for students who are attending their first tournament in novice. We will be a primarily in-person tournament, but can accommodate online entries for schools with budget restrictions or other extenuating circumstances that make traveling to JMU difficult or impossible. Debates will occur on the main JMU campus, centrally located around Bluestone Quad.

We will also host a costume contest on Saturday (details tba).

There will be six preliminary rounds on the 2025-2026 CEDA resolution in each division and we will clear half the field in each division up to doubles for elimination rounds. You can manage your tournament entries on tabroom.com through October 27 at noon. Drops after that date are subject to the participant fee.

Entry fees are $75 per person (debater, coach, judge, or observer). The tournament will provide dinner on Friday, all three meals on Saturday, and breakfast and lunch on Sunday. If your school cannot afford entry fees, please reach out to Taylor Johnson at johns4tn@jmu.edu and we will work with you to ensure you are able to attend.

Registration Information FEES AND AWARDS

Entries will be accepted in all three divisions (novice, junior varsity, and varsity). Hybrids are eligible to clear. In each division, there will be six preliminary rounds of debate on the 2025-2026 CEDA resolution. The entry deadline is October 27^th at noon (teams dropping after that time will be assessed entry fees). JMU teams will be entered and will be eligible to clear and receive speaker awards.
Awards will be provided to the top eight teams and the top five speakers in each division. Additionally, novice entries in which at least one participant is at their first tournament will be eligible for rookie awards. We will have a finals round for the top two rookie teams, and will give awards to the top two teams and the top speaker entered as rookies.

JUDGING:

Judging philosophies as a precondition of entry must be posted at tabroom.com no later than October 27^th. Each school must provide 3 rounds of prelim judging per team. Judges must vote for one and only one team in each debate. All judges are obligated through the first elimination round and one round beyond the elimination of their squad. Judges may be released if teams request to leave but requests will be entirely contingent upon availability with other judges. If schools are not able to cover their elimination round obligations or leave without permission, they will be assessed fines and/or have awards withheld.

Each judge will have 2:15 from the announced start time of each debate to render a decision.

CASELIST and SCOUTING:

Participating teams and schools are expected to contribute to the opencaselist as a precondition for entry and should provide their most recent affirmative and negative information by October 23^rd (at the latest). This should include an outline of the arguments sufficient for novice comprehension as well as full citations. Teams and schools are expected to cooperate with JMU students and staff assigned to gather the material. Novice teams are not restricted to the ADA evidence set.

TOURNAMENT STAFF:

Tab will be run by Neil Butt. If you are interested in working in the tab room, please contact Taylor Johnson as we would like to expand opportunities for those who normally are not asked to staff tab rooms.

AUDIO and VIDEO RECORDING:

All rounds (defined as the speeches of the participants) are open to registered tournament participants and may be electronically recorded only for private educational use by tournament participants with consent from all participants in the round (registered coaches, debaters and helpers, and JMU tournament staff. Public distribution of such recordings is expressly prohibited unless prior written consent of all people on the recording is obtained and unless prior written consent of James Madison University is obtained. Private sharing for educational use is permitted.

TOURNAMENT HOTEL:

We have a small block of rooms at a reduced price at Hotel Madison. The hotel is located on campus, less than a five-minute walk from most of the buildings where rounds will occur. You can book your rooms here. The block will close on October 1^st. If you have any trouble with the booking link, please contact Andrew Reynolds (areynolds@hotelmadison.com).

HOSPITALITY:

In addition to dinner on Friday, breakfast, lunch and dinner on Saturday and breakfast and lunch on Sunday we will provide hospitality throughout. We plan to provide all meals buffet style with significant healthy alternatives.

RULES, NORMS AND CONDUCT:

All participants debate at the invitation of James Madison University according to its tournament rules as well as any rules of their sponsoring institutions. The tournament abides by the rules and norms of the American Forensics Association, the American Debate Association (pending approval), and the Cross Examination Debate Association.

PARKING:

Parking will be the JMU K-lot, 1046 S Main St, Harrisonburg. Busses may drop off in K-lot but need to park at perimeter R3 Parking Lot at 1161 Harrison St, Harrisonburg.

CAMPUS MAP:

https://map.jmu.edu/?id=1869

Internet:

Connect to the JMU Guest Wifi. The username and password will be available by 2:00 pm on the 31^st.

FEES:

$75.00 per person (debater, judge, coach, or observer) regardless of modality. That includes dinner Friday, Breakfast/Lunch/Dinner Saturday, and Breakfast/Lunch Sunday. Any school that needs a fee reduction due to economic hardship should contact us as soon as you know you are planning on attending.

PAYMENT:

Working on it – we should have the ability to accept both online payments and checks. We will update when the portal is available.

ALUMNI REUNION:

We will host a reunion for JMU Debate alumni in the lobby bar of Hotel Madison on Saturday at 7:30 pm!

TENTATIVE SCHEDULE:

Schedule linkhere