Topics

Policy Debate will use the NSDA 2026-27 topic -- Resolved: The United States federal government should establish national health insurance in the United States.

LD Debate will use the NSDA September/October 2026 topic -- Resolved: Outer space colonization is a moral imperative.

PF Debate will use the NSDA September/October 2026 topic -- Resolved: The United States federal government should enact a moratorium on hyperscale data center construction.

No novice topics will be used in any division.

WSD will follow the scaffold and TFA Constitution recommendations. We will break to TFA points for elimination rounds. Elim 1 will always be the first elimination round, whether that is quarterfinals, semifinals, or finals.

Round 1 AND 2 (students will debate both sides): This House believes democratic elections are better served by public financing than by privately funded campaigns.
Info Slide: A publicly financed election is one in which candidates' campaigns are funded by the state through public funds, such as tax revenues, rather than through private donations, corporate contributions, or candidates' personal wealth.
Round 3: Impromptu

Round 4: This House would prioritize expanding access to affordable housing over increasing wages.

Elim 1: Impromptu

Elim 2: This House welcomes climate pessimism.
Info Slide: Climate pessimism is the viewpoint that catastrophic global heating and severe ecological breakdown cannot be fully prevented and we should make decisions based on this fact.

Elim 3 (if needed): This House regrets the use of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as the primary metric of a nation's success.

Congress will follow the TFA Scaffold for Fall 2026. All legislation will be pulled from this link.

Prelims: 1, 4, 2, 3, 5

Semifinals (if needed): 11, 12, 15, 14, 13

Finals: 7, 10, 8, 6, 9

Additionally, we will be using Rule 2(l) on page 68 of the TFA Constitution and limiting floor debate per item of legislation to no more than one-third of a session's total floor time. We anticipate that will be 1 hour per piece of legislation.

Per the Full Cycle Amendment that passed at TSCA last year, there is a minimum cycle of one affirmative and one negative speech before items can be tabled

DX topic areas:

Round 1 - Environment

Round 2 - Elections

Round 3 - Social Issues

Semis - Foreign Relations

Finals - Judiciary

FX topic areas:

Round 1 - Asia

Round 2 - Latin America

Round 3 - Africa

Semis (if needed) - Climate Change

Finals - Triads

NX will be a mixed format and involve topics from both IX and DX.