Tournament Rules and Regulations

Event Availability and Rules: There will be five preliminary rounds of debate, with possible hidden eliminations, as well as five preliminary rounds of individual events. The tournament is sanctioned by the GHSA, NFSHSA, GFCA, and NFL, and all events will follow NFL rules. With the exception of Policy Debate, all Schedule A Events may double enter in any Schedule B Events.

Team Debate: Policy Teams will debate the 2006-2007 Topic. Team Debate will be two person switch-sides debate following the 8-3-5 format with 8 minutes of prep. There will be three divisions of team debate; Varsity, Junior Varsity, and Novice. There are no restrictions on how many teams may enter each division, but the tournament will be following the 2001 GFCA resolution that states, "a novice debater should be a student who is debating his/her first national high school resolution and a JV debater should be a student who is debating no more than his/her second national high school resolution in high school tournaments." All teams will also abide by the 2004 GFCA Guidelines for Novice Debate.

Lincoln-Douglas Debate: Lincoln-Douglas debaters will be debating the 2006 NFL September-October Topic and follow the 6-3-7-3-4-6-3 Format with 3 minutes of prep. Schools entering LD debaters should also follow the 2001 GFCA resolution outlined above.

Ted Turner Debate: Ted Turner Debate will strictly follow the rules outlined by the NFL.

Extemporaneous Speaking: Extemporaneous Speaking topics will be provided by Extemp Topics, Inc. and will cover a variety of current events from August 2006 until the date of the tournament. Each speaker will be given 30 minutes of prep time and 7 minutes total speech time. One 3X5 notecard may be used in the preliminary rounds, but all other rounds will strictly follow NFL rules and regulations including the cross-examination period in the final round.

Original Oratory: All Original Oratory speeches will follow the rules outlined by the NFL and must be original works written by the competitor. There will be a 10 maximum time allowed for speeches, and all speech must not contain more than 150 quoted words.

Interpretation Events: Humorous Interpretation, Dramatic Interpretation, and Duo Interpretation will strictly follow NFL rules. Manuscripts will be allowed in all rounds; however, contestants may be ranked lower than those not using manuscripts.

Student Congress: After break rounds have been announced, all students not participating are invited to participate in two student congress sessions offered on Saturday afternoon. Both Student Congress sessions will follow NFL rules and last approximately two hours each. Students must register before each session begins. Awards will be given to the top students in each session. Bills and resolutions will be provided by the tournament staff.

Registration: Pre-registration will be available in one of three ways. We encourage all schools to use the online registration found at www.joyoftournaments.com . The staff of the Winfield Scott Classic will also except email registration and postal mail registration if necessary. Registration will officially end at 8:00PM on Thursday, October 12, 2006. All entries or changes made after that date will incur a financial penalty. Make sure to register early!

Judging Requirements: A judge must be provided for every two policy team, four LD debaters, two Ted Turner teams, or five individual events participants. Judges must cover all of the rounds that the school is involved in and one round past that school's elimination in all events. Student judges are strongly discouraged. Any school that uses a student judge must be able to verify that the student has debate for at least one year at the varsity level. The tournament director must approve the use of all student judges before registration. We encourage your school to provide your own quality judges because a limited number of hired judges will be available. Please notify us as soon as possible of your judging needs.

Entry Fees and Deadlines: All entries must be received by 8PM on Thursday, October 12, 2006. All fees will be assessed at that time. Name changes will be allowed until 12PM on Friday, October 13, 2006, but all other changes will incur a $25.00 processing fee per change that will be due at the time of registration. Changes on Friday can be made by phone by calling Starrs Mill High School at (770) 486-2710 up until the 12PM deadline. Unlimited changes may be made online at www.joyoftournaments.com until the Thursday deadline. Please note that if your pre-registration indicates that you are hiring a judge that judge will be charged to your schools account regardless of changes made on Friday, October 13th. The following tournament fees will apply to the 2006 Winfield Scott Debate Classic:

            School Fee:     $25.00            

            Policy Debate Team:     $30.00

            Lincoln-Douglas Debate:     $15.00

            Ted Turner Debate Team:     $30.00

            Individual Events:     $10.00

            Duo Interpretation:     $20.00

            Hired Judge:     $100.00

            Name Changes:     No charge before 12PM on Friday

            Add / Drops:     No charge before 8PM on Thursday

            All Other Changes:     $25.00 per change

Scheduling Regulations: It is very important to the staff of the Winfield Scott Debate Classic that our tournament is an enjoyable experience for everyone involved. We have made every effort to increase the number of debate events that a student may enter, but this type of schedule is difficult to maintain. All events will be paired and distributed at 4PM on Friday. Any changes made at the time of registration will be officially reflected in the second round of the tournament. Rounds will promptly begin at the time specified. Any competitor more than 20 minutes late to a round will incur a loss for that round (20 minutes is calculated from the time that one competitor and the judge enter the room). The tournament schedule will reflect the needs of double entries.