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Dear Colleagues,

We would like to invite you and your team to the 51st Winston Churchill Classic hosted in-person on January 9-11, 2026. We are excited to host another excellent tournament and whether you are a tournament regular, this is your first time attending, or you are returning to the tournament to celebrate the milestone of 50 years we hope you have a great experience.

We are proud to have been awarded TOC bids from the University of Kentucky in LD (semifinals), Gold PF (finals), Silver PF (semifinals), Congress (top 6) and all relevant Speech events. We are also pleased to announce that we are also a NIETOC qualifying tournament in the relevant speech events as well as a TFA qualifying tournament.

Important for 2027, we have lost access to a substantial amount of classrooms this year which is requiring us to place hard entry caps on events based on entry levels from last year. We have also had to make the unfortunate decision to not offer novice debate events to further maximize available classroom space. This means it is incredibly important that coaches pay attention to the priority entry deadline of December 15. On December 16th, we will evaluate tournament entries and begin to clear waitlists as we shift rooms from events that did not fill their room allotment to events that have waitlists, these decisions will not be reversible so please talk to students and get your entries in early to secure spots. 

In debate events we will feature 6 preliminary debate rounds for VLD and VPF, and 5 preliminary rounds for VCX and WSD. Congressional debate will feature one prelim with semifinal and final rounds to follow. Speech events will feature THREE preliminary rounds with two judges per prelim, and elim rounds of quarters, semis, and finals based on entry numbers. Debates will begin Friday afternoon with semifinal and final debates on Sunday for VLD and VPF. 

We look forward to hosting you in January. The full invitation and tournament information can be found on the right, if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to reach out.

Sincerely,

Preston Stolte and Daniel Moore