Hoosier Heartland and Hoosier Crossroads Districts
HOOSIER CROSSROADS --- BOTH DEBATE & CONGRESS QUALIFIER
HOOSIER HEARTLAND --- DEBATE QUALIFIER ONLY (CONGRESS WILL BE WITH SPEECH)
JANUARY 24, 2026
REGISTRATION OPENS 1/1/2026
The Hoosier Heartland and Hoosier Crossroads District Committees welcome you to the 2025-2026 NSDA District Qualifier Series. Our first event: District Debate (HC/HH) & Congress (HC ONLY). The tournament will be held at Carmel High School at 520 E Main St, Carmel, IN 46032.
BUILDING ENTRY, ROOM LOCATIONS, ETC. (See Update 01/18/26 in SW Uploaded files).
EVENTS OFFERED
DEBATE EVENTS (Hoosier Crossroads and Hoosier Heartland)
-
Policy, Public Forum, Lincoln Douglas, Congress
-
Each event must have at least 4 competitors from 2 different schools
-
The top 2 finishers in each event, in each district will qualify for the NSDA National Tournament
-
Each school may enter up to four entries in Policy, LD, and PF. Congress uses the NSDA entry limits.
CONGRESS (Hoosier Crossroads only; Hoosier Heartland Congress NQ will be at Bloomington South on 03/07/26)
We are hoping to seat a house and senate this year in Hoosier Crossroads. In order to make this happen, we need your help! This is an excellent opportunity to try something new, earn points, and practice for any speechie, particularly those who do extemp or impromptu, but truly for anyone on your team.
The rules and requirements:
-
Senate. A district with six or more schools and 10 or more students represented in the Senate will qualify two senators to the National Senate. If fewer than six schools or 10 students are represented, no Senate may be seated; however, a district may still conduct a House with sufficient entries.
-
House of Representatives. A district must have a minimum of 16 competitors to seat a House of Representatives. To pull this off, we need 26 competitors from 6 different schools! Let’s go Hoosier Crossroads. Throughout the registration process over the next few weeks, we will be monitoring sign ups -- please sign up early so that we can have a good idea of where we are short or exceeding.
-
We plan on holding a preliminary round of at least one chamber (more if warranted) and a final round with either the one chamber again or the top competitors from multiple chambers if indicated. All of the details can be found on page 109 of the tournament manual, including how chambers are setup based on the number of entries.
-
Judges. Each chamber will require at least one parli and two scoring judges. The parli serves all day and the scoring judge serve for a round (approximately the morning or the afternoon session). In order to encourage participation but still have a variety of quality judges, please plan on providing one judge if you enter 2 contestants and 2 judges if you enter 3-6 contestants. If you are bringing more than 6 contestants, we would ask that you provide a third but it is unlikely that 3 judges will be doing congress. If you are unable to provide three (we get it), you will not be penalized for only providing two - but we can dream.
DEBATE TOPICS
POLICY: 2025-2026
Resolved: The United States federal government should significantly strengthen increase its exploration and/or development of the Artic.
LINCOLN-DOUGLAS: January 2026
Resolved: The possession of nuclear weapons is immoral.
PUBLIC FORUM: January 2026
Resolved: The Peopl's Republic of China should substantially reduce its international extraction of natural resources.
CONGRESSIONAL BILLS (HC only!)
Bills are available for downloading on Speechwire. The bills are NOT in speaking order.
TOURNAMENT STRUCTURE
-
We will follow the Debate Pilot Rules and any new rules as specified in the NSDA High School Event Rules Manual as well as the District Tournament Operations Manual.
-
4 preliminary rounds followed by a single elimination bracket
-
Rounds 1 and 2 are preset and rounds 3 and 4 are power-matched. Only entries with winning records after Round 4 will advance to elimination rounds.
-
Advancing entries will be placed in a single elimination bracket. The tournament continues until the number of entries active is equal to or lower than the number of qualifiers.
-
POLICY DEBATE - Depending on the # of entries, policy may use a round robin tournament structure.
-
CONGRESS (Hoosier Crossroads only) –
-
All district tournaments must use direct questioning in Congressional Debate (beginning in 2022-2023). Direct questioning: The presiding officer will open the floor for questions following each speech. The presiding officer will recognize questioners for a cross-examination period of no more than 30 seconds. Questioners will be chosen according to a separate questioning recency.
-
Preset, randomized recency will be used in every round of Congressional Debate at the National Tournament beginning in 2022. All district tournaments must use preset, randomized recency in Congressional Debate (2022-2023).
-
DOUBLING is not allowed.
ELIGIBILITY
-
Participation is open to schools who have registered and paid dues to NSDA prior to the start of the tournament.
-
Students must be paid members (having earned 25 points) prior to the district tournament entry deadline. All necessary fees must be submitted to the national office by this deadline.
-
Students must be officially registered as an NSDA member user with a valid, unique email address on the organization website.
-
All outstanding NSDA fees MUST BE PAID by Friday, January 23, 2026 by Noon.
