Date: October 4-5, 2025

Hosted by: The University of North Texas Online

Format: The tournament will offer a virtual format to maximize opportunities for teams to enter.

Website: http://untdemougeotdebates.tabroom.com

The University of North Texas welcomes you to the UNT DeMougeot Debates Debate Tournament.

• Shortening the schedule – to accommodate folks on the West Coast, we will begin at 10am both on Saturday and Sunday

• Judges must provide a paradigm on Tabroom and have a linked tabroom account to adjudicate debates - in order to maximize engagement with our judging pool, we ask that all judges upload a judging philosophy so that students can better communicate their ideas and engage their judges.

• Judges are required to have their cameras on during debates – verbal AND non-verbal feedback are essential to the communicative practices that undergird our activity, without the ability to

see and react to judges, debaters are left without much of the information they need to better communicate and refine their arguments. Debaters are encouraged to report to the tournament administrator if judges refuse to turn their cameras on, and judges will be removed from the tournament if they are found to repeatedly violate it.

• Judges are ASKED to disclose their decision and provide verbal feedback to debaters – All results will be posted on tabroom immediately following the round anyway, so you might as well give thoughtful and deliberative feedback. We have provided ample time for judges to consider their decisions, provide thorough oral feedback to the debaters, and engage with questions debaters might have about the outcomes of the debate.

Logistics

The tournament will run on Saturday and Sunday on Zoom.

The password and waiting room features should be turned off for the tournament, but if you are stuck in the waiting room for some reason, just send me a message via email, tabroom, or facebook.

Awards

Teams clearing to elimination will be provided with awards.

The appropriate number of speaker awards will be given out in each division.

Student Eligibility

Students must be currently enrolled at the college or university for which they are competing. Students may not have attended a collegiate national forensic/debate tournament in four or more academic years OR completed eight semesters of collegiate competition. A semester is defined as having competed in

more than two tournaments. Either of these standards being met (eight semesters of college

competition or four years of collegiate national tournament participation) will render a student ineligible to compete in this tournament unless they are utilizing the extra semester rule authorized by the NFA-LD committee in the wake of the COVID pandemic.

Fees and Judging

Entries are $15/person for those competing ONLINE (competitors, judge, or observers) to cover the cost of hired judging.

**There is a charge of $100 per uncovered entry.

The entry fees are assessed at 5pm on Wednesday, October ^1st, and per school entries will be reduced if sufficient judging has not been provided. We reserve the right to charge $50/uncovered round (or

reduce school entries) if judges are dropped after that point, and we do not anticipate having reserve judging beyond the judge hiring system in tabroom.

NFA Lincoln-Douglas

An open, junior, and novice division of NFA Lincoln Douglas will be offered. JV and Novice divisions will be collapsed if there are insufficient entries. Debates will use a 6-3-7-3-6-6-3 format with 4 minutes of preparation. We will use the 202-2065 NFA LD topic. Topic can be found on the National Forensic Association website.

Divisions Defined

Any student may enter an open division. Junior division is open to students in their first four semesters of collegiate debate (of any kind). Novice division is open to students with less than two semesters of any debate at any level (high school or college).

Format & Judging

The tournament will have 6 preliminary rounds with the appropriate number of elimination rounds, so

each individual LD entry requires 3 rounds of judging. If you bring judges above your commitment, encourage them to list on tabroom’s judging exchange. We encourage schools to handle any hiring.

All debate judges are committed through the first elimination debate and/or one rounds past their school’s elimination from the tournament. We will work to clear schools with long drives when

possible. Schools are encouraged to hire judges with debate experience, and the tournament will offer two judge strikes, prioritizing entries still able to clear.

Brackets will NOT be broken

Entry Deadlines

Entries must be received by 5:00 p.m. CST on Wednesday, October1st, 2025

Any changes after Wednesday, October 1st, should be e-mailed to Brian Lain at: brian.lain@unt.edu

Tentative Schedule Saturday, October 4th

9:00am Please confirm entries/drops by this time 10:00am Round 1

12:00pm Round 2

1:30 – lunch provided.

2:30pm Round 3

4:30pm Round 4

6:30pm Round 5

Sunday, October 5th

10:00am Round 6

12:00pm Elim 1 ASAP Awards

2:30pm Elim 2

4:30pm Elim 3

6:00pm Elim 4

Other Information

1. Each institution must provide adequate judging to cover their entries.

2. All debate judges are committed through the first elimination debate and/or one rounds past their school’s elimination from the tournament.

3. We will gladly hire you if you can judge beyond your commitment. If you know of qualified individuals who would like to be hired, please have them contact the Tournament Director.

4. Team Disclosure: Affirmative case disclosure is expected.

5. All debate rounds must have one winner and one loser.

6. Unless otherwise indicated by teams, higher seeds will advance from the same school automatically in elimination rounds.

-Brian Lain, Director of Debate