Freshmen/Sophomore Nationals - 2011

Freshmen/Sophomore Nationals at Michigan State
March 5-7, 2011

The MSU Debate team cordially invites you to attend the Freshmen/Sophomore Nationals at Michigan State. We are glad to host this in East Lansing for the fourth time, and hope that turnout will be as good – or even better – as last year.

Based on feedback from previous participants, we have decided to keep the expanded entry pool that allows entry from students in both their first AND second year of college competition. This was the model that we used the last two years, and given our desire to keep entry numbers fairly high, we have decided to continue using this standard.

The entry criteria are based not on students’ academic standing, but on their number of years in college debate – e.g., if a student is a junior, but is only in their first or second year of college competition, they may enter the tournament.

Below you will find all the relevant information. Entries can be made via debateresults.com

Lodging: The tournament will be hosted at the Kellogg Hotel and Conference Center on the MSU campus. They have guaranteed us a rate of $94 per night (+ tax). This includes the use of wireless internet. Parking is $5/night.

Rooms are reserved under ‘MSU Debate Team.’ Reservations can be made until February 2nd. The hotel phone number is (517) 432-4000.

We guestimated the amount of rooms we would need given information from last year. If you find the block to be full, please contact us and we will try and find some more rooms.

Travel: We use a variety of different airports to travel to Lansing –

Lansing airport – 15 minutes away from the campus, very convenient

Flint airport – 45 minutes away from the campus, small and convenient, serves Airtran airlines often at discounted rates

Grand Rapids airport – 1 hour away from the campus, small and convenient

Detroit metro airport – About 1 hr and 25 minutes away, definitely the least convenient option but frequently the cheapest since it serves most airlines, including Southwest.

Fees: Entry fees will be $50 per team plus $30 per person in attendance (debaters, judges, coaches, etc.). This will include the cost of breakfast and lunch on Saturday and Sunday, and dinner on Sunday. So, for example, if you were to bring 1 team and 1 judge (3 people), your bill would be $140 ($50 + (3 x $30))

Judge Preference: Judge preference categories will be determined based on the size of the pool. As we did last year, strike cards will be available at registration.

Elimination Debates: We will clear to a partial octofinal (to be held on Sunday night) to accommodate all teams with a 4-3 or better record (up to the point where we reach a full octofinal).

Preliminary Schedule:

Friday, March 4th: Registration in the evening

Saturday, March 5th:

8:00    Round 1
10:30    Round 2
1:00    Lunch
2:00   Round 3
5:00   Round 4

Sunday, March 6th:

8:00   Round 5
11:30   Round 6 (This will not be lag paired as we only have 7 rounds)
2:00    Lunch
3:00   Round 7
6:30   Partial octofinal
9:00    Banquet

Monday, March 7th:

8:00    Quarterfinals
12:00   Semifinals
4:00   Finals