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The MNUDL would like to invite you to participate at the 2026 UMBrooks at the University of Minnesota!

Tournament Overview

FORMAT: There will be 5 rounds of policy debate this weekend. Friday will be ONLINE and Saturday will be IN PERSON. Varsity must enter for both days, but JV and Novice (A, B, C) may enter for both or either day of competition. Policy prep time limit will be 8 minutes. Novice packet information is here.

Resolutions: JV and Varsity Policy debate will debate the 2026-2027 national resolution:

Resolved: The United States federal government should establish national health insurance in the United States.

Novice A and B will be using the following plan text:

Plan: The United States federal government should establish national single payer health insurance in the United States.

Buses should drop off and pick up at the roundabout outside the Humphrey School. There should be someone there to meet you and lead you to Blegen Hall room 5 or 10.

Tabroom will be in Blegen 155, judge lounge in Blegen 145, judge training for new judges in Blegen 135.

Schedule

Friday (online)

Check in 2:45pm-3:20pm

Room check 3:40-4:00pm

Round 1 4:00-6:00pm

Dinner 6:00-6:30pm

Round 2 6:30-8:15pm

Saturday

8:45-9:30 am Registration (in Blegen Hall - signs will be posted)
10:00 am Round 1
12:00-12:45 pm Lunch and community building
1:00-3:00 Round 2

3:30-5:15 Round 3
5:30 pm Awards (Blegen 5 and 10)

Community building

For UMbrooks, our spirit day will be College Swag Day! We encourage your debaters to wear college swag (sweatshirt, hoodie, hat, etc.)!

Registration

If you are going to be short on judges please let us know. It is possible, but not guaranteed, that we may be able to cover your judge obligation with hired judges. Teams short on their judge obligation will be fined $140 per missing judge. If there are not enough judges to run the tournament, we will drop partnerships from schools missing judges until we are able to run the tournament.

Judge training for new judges will be available from 9:15am-9:45am in Blegen 135

Expectations of your team's onsite coach:

You, the onsite coach, will have your contact information listed as the primary contact on the signup page.

The onsite coach listed will check in with tabroom (612-300-6543) about all changes to registration before 9:30am with 100% accuracy

You will have current and correct contact information for you judges, co-coaches, and students. We also advise that you have information for contacting students' parents and any relevant student health information in case any of your students have a medical emergency.

You will communicate the judge expectations to your judges.

You will communicate the schedule to your students and transportation provider.

All debaters and judges will have linked tabroom accounts to facilitate online balloting.

Fees and Judges

Fees are set at $5 per round per entry. This helps us cover the cost of a full lunch (catered by Boca Chica), snacks, and the cost of using the site.

Please make checks payable to:

Minnesota Urban Debate League 2211 Riverside Ave, CB 26 Minneapolis, MN 55454

Concessions

Concessions will not be available at this tournament but lunch will be provided after round 1 and snacks will be provided as teams arrive as well as before awards after round 3.

Tabulation Procedures:

All divisions will be lag paired in order to help assure the tournament runs as close to on time as possible while still providing quality competition.

As a general rule, partnerships more than 15 minutes late to their debate will be marked as forfeited. Extenuating circumstances may override this rule but it is up to the discretion of the tab staff. Judges must check with tab before assigning a legitimate forfeit. Efforts will be made by tab to locate missing teams before marking them forfeited, but ultimately it is up to those students and their coaches to arrive to the debate in a timely manner.

If there are not enough entries in a division to host 3 unique debates then the tab staff will be in contact with the teams with entries in those divisions to figure out a workable solution.

If a school does not fulfill their judge obligation then the tab staff reserves the right to drop as many partnerships from that school as would cause them to meet their judge obligation. This includes a scenario where a judge leaves mid-day without fulfilling their obligation. The tab staff will attempt what they can to prevent dropping partnerships, but ultimately if there aren't enough total judges to cover the pool of competitors then some entries from that school will need to sit out. Tab will attempt to contact a coach on the team that is having entries dropped starting with the primary contact listed, but if it cannot be done in a time frame that would keep the tournament running on time then the tab will make the unilateral decision about which entries to bench.

Tournament Location:

University of Minnesota, Blegen Hall, 269 19th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Dropoff location for buses: 301 19th Ave S, Minneapolis, MN 55455

Suggested day parking location: UMN Law School Parking Lot (UMN Lot 86) (Google Map link here)

Payment

Please make checks payable to:

Minnesota Urban Debate League

2211 Riverside Ave. CB 26

Minneapolis, MN 55454

International Judges: Please note that we cannot pay to bank accounts or physical locations outside the US by policy of our governing organization. That includes paypal, venmo, etc. If you live outside the United States and want to judge virtually, we cannot pay you.