National Debate Tournament History

The National Debate Tournament (NDT) began in 1947 at the United States Military Academy at West Point. Twenty-nine schools competed at the first NDT debating: "Resolved: That labor should be given a direct share in the management of industry". It remained at West Point until 1967 when it was assumed by the American Forensic Association in part because of the Vietnam War. Since then, the tournament has moved to different member schools each year and only three schools have hosted it twice.

In the first NDT, teams were nominated by committees from their district. This was soon replaced with district qualifying tournaments. Eight, post district tournament, "second round" at-large bids were awarded beginning in 1968 and continuing through 1970, enlarging the field to 44 teams, and two of these second round selections "cleared", or finished in the top sixteen in the preliminary rounds, in 1968, three cleared in 1969 and four of the eight post district tournament qualifiers cleared in 1970.

Prior to 1970, a school could only send one team to the NDT, but the tournament committee relented to pressure from some of the more successful programs and a total of eight schools sent two teams to the 1970 National Debate Tournament that year. The winner of that tournament, designated Kansas "B", would not have been eligible to participate if the one team per school rule had remained in force.

In 1971, the format was amended to assign seventeen at-large bids prior to district qualifying tournaments, followed by the selection of an additional 27 teams by the district tournaments and another eight in a second at large selection round, enlarging the field to 52 teams. Ten regular season tournaments were designated to be "qualifying tournaments", such that winning one earned that team an automatic NDT berth, and the remainder of the first at-large round teams were selected by vote of the selection committee. That format lasted for just two years.

Starting in 1973 and continuing to the present, sixteen at-large bids are awarded to teams based on records prior to the district tournament selections, and additional at-large bids are awarded after the district qualifying tournaments. The field was enlarged to 62 teams in 1973 and stayed that size until 1987, when it was enlarged to include 74 teams, and it then varied in size from 72 to 78 teams over the next decade.

West Georgia has a long history of success at the National Debate Tournament. According to the National Debate Tournament website, West Georgia is among the top 20 universities competing in intercollegiate debate in America historically. Its 49 appearances at the NDT is the 12th highest of all universities in the United States and include 38 consecutive years of national tournament qualifiers from 1973-2010. West Georgia's debate team also ranks in the all-time top 20 in total speaker awards, elimination round appearances and wins, and at-large bids to the national tournament.

National Debate Tournament Finalists

Twenty-nine teams from West Georgia have competed in the elimination rounds of the National Debate Tournament, including 2 semifinalists, 6 quarterfinalists, 10 octofinalists, and 11 double octafinalists.

Season Rankings

Twenty-three teams from West Georgia have finished the regular season ranked in the top 16 by the national debate coaches' rankings and received an at-large bid to the National Debate Tournament.

National Debate Tournament Awards

West Georgia debaters have received 20 speaker awards at the National Debate Tournament. Coaches have received 4 awards from the NDT for their contributions to the community.