Magnolia District Qualifier

for the 2026 National Tournament

7. Judges

Judges

• Every school competing must provide at least one judge for the tournament’s duration. You may not “buy out” all of your judging obligations.

• Buying out any judging obligations is strongly discouraged. The fees are meant to disincentive buyouts. They are not magical judge-supplying fees.

• One judge is obligated for every two debate entries.

• One judge is obligated for every five speech entries.

• Uncovered judge obligations will be charged $50 each.

• Please bring judges, even above and beyond your obligation. Qualifier tournaments in particular thrive or grind to a halt based on judge availability.

Judges should watch the 6 min video and read the brief materials on judging Speech & Debate found on the NSDA Website: https://www.speechanddebate.org/judge-training/. NFHS training is also strongly encouraged (ask me about that if you don’t know about it).