Tournament Procedure By-Laws
National Comprehensive Tournament, Sponsored by Pi Kappa Delta

PREAMBLE

The National Comprehensive Tournament is intended, first and foremost, as an education opportunity for students from throughout the collegiate forensic community.  As an educational and competitive event this tournament is intended to showcase the breadth of the collegiate forensic events.  As such, this tournament hosts and encourages students to participate in a breadth of performance, public address, and debate events.  In particular, the tournament celebrates the role of honoraries in promoting a balance of education and competition within an environment of comprehensive participation.  This tournament is unique from the biennial national tournament and convention in that it opens opportunities to all collegiate programs in a context of national competition in the broadest range of forensic events.

ARTICLE I The Tournament

Section 1. This tournament shall be named the National Comprehensive Tournament, Sponsored by Pi Kappa Delta.  Pi Kappa Delta business and literature may refer to this tournament as the NCT.

Section 2. This tournament shall be held on even numbered years.  Dates and sites for each tournament shall be determined by the national council.

Section 3. Bid specifications for hosting the NCT will be determined by the National Council.  Bid applications should be submitted to the President-Elect prior to the first summer National Council meeting of the biennium.

Section 4. The President shall appoint the Director of the NCT.

Section 5.  Tournament fees shall be recommended by the Director of the NCT and approved by the National Council.  Fee recommendations should be based on such factors as expected attendance and the operating costs of the tournament.

Section 6.  The tournament committee will be decided upon as it is for the biennial convention and tournament per Article III, Section 363.4 of the PKD Constitution.

Section 7. This tournament shall be an open invitational for all collegiate forensic programs.

Section 8. All decisions not covered by these by-laws will be determined by the Tournament Director in consultation with the tournament committee.  All questions regarding interpretation of the NCT by-laws will be answered by the Tournament Director.

Section 9. The NCT shall abide by the Pi Kappa Delta Statement on Discrimination.

ARTICLE II. Tournament Procedures

Section 1. Judging

a. All judges at the NCT shall possess a baccalaureate degree or experience commensurate to one in forensic training.  Exceptions to this rule must be approved by the tournament director.  Undergraduate students with existing eligibility to compete in forensics may not judge at the NCT.

b. Judge obligations for each school shall be based on the size of entry, with specifics to be determined by the tournament director.  Judge fees shall be assessed by the tournament director for schools not meeting their judge obligations.

c. Judges will be randomly assigned with the only exemption being they will not judge students from their own school for from any other school with which they declare an association or other conflict of interest.  Such conflicts and associations must be declared on the entry form.

d. Judges may indicate which events, formats, and/or divisions they prefer to judge.  While every attempt will be made to honor these preferences the tournament director reserves the right to assign judges as needed for the efficient and fair administration of the tournament.

e. Insofar as possible, all elimination rounds will have odd-numbered multiple judge panels.

Section 2. Entries

a. No limits shall be placed on the number of entries allowed by an entering school, subject to meeting judging requirements commensurate with the entry.

b. Each student participant must be an undergraduate in good standing who has not completed eight semesters of forensics participation and/or has not participated in a national tournament during four separate years.  One semester of participation includes participation at three tournaments during that semester.  The semester rule for eligibility is for individual events or debate, meaning a student may be eligible for one of those areas of participation and not the other.

Section 3. Awards

a. Awards will be presented to all students reaching an elimination round in any event.

b. Duplicate awards will be presented for each member of two-person team events.

c. Excellence awards will be presented to each person in the top 30% of an event who did not otherwise receive an award as an elimination round participant.  The number of awards presented will be rounded up from .1 or more for each percentile.

d. Pentathlon awards will be presented to students who participate in five or more individual events, including at least one from each genre:  limited preparation, public address, and interpretation.  The number of awards presented will be determined by the Tournament Director.  Points will be awarded using the sweepstakes formula for individual events.  Only a student’s top five events will count toward point totals for this award.

e. Speaker awards will be presented to the top speakers in each division of debate.  The number of awards presented will be determined by the Tournament Director.

f. “Outstanding Legislator” awards will be presented to the top six students in each chamber of student congress.

g. A traveling award will be presented to the school earning the most cumulative points throughout the years of the NCT.  Standings are determined by dividing sweepstakes points in half for the current tournament and adding them to the total earned prior to the current tournament.  A school’s points revert zero following a year in which they win the award.

h. Awards will be presented to the top school in each of the three collegiate honoraries.

i. Sweepstakes awards will be presented to schools in debate, individual events, and overall sweepstakes.  The number of awards presented will be determined by the Tournament Director.

a. Individual events sweepstakes points will be awarded as follows:
• Preliminary round points will be awarded to the top three competitors from each school in each event:
o Rank of 1  3 points
o Rank of 2  2 points
o Rank of 3  1 point
• Elimination round points will be awarded for each student a school advances:
o First place  6 points
o Second place  5 points
o Third place  4 points
o Fourth place  3 points
o Fifth place  2 points
o Sixth place  1 point
o Semifinals  1 point (for all students in semifinals)

b. Debate sweepstakes points will be awarded as follows:
• The top three teams for each school per format will receive:
o 5 points per preliminary round victory
o 7 points per elimination round victory through the first two elimination rounds
o for that format/division
• Schools earn elimination round points for each team that advances.  Single person formats and student congress entries count as half a debate team.
• Reader’s theatre entries will count as team debate entries.  Reader’s theatre entries will be awarded a win for a “1” rank, a half win for a “2” rank (in a three-team section), and a loss for a “2” rank in a two-team section or a “3” in a three-team section.  When the reader’s theatre division has more entries than award winners, the top three receive points for a team elimination round win.
• Students ranked in the top six of their chamber by each “temporary” judge in student congress sessions will receive points for a preliminary round win.  Students placing in the top six of their chamber will receive points for an elimination round win.

c. Overall sweepstakes
• Sweepstakes will be determined by adding individual events and debate sweepstakes totals.  A school must have both debate and individual events competing in the tournament in order to be eligible for overall sweepstakes awards.

Section 4. Individual Events

a) All of the American Forensic Association events will be offered.

b) Contestants may enter two events in Patterns A, B, and C.

c) No contestant may enter more than two duos.

d) Contestants may not use the same presentation in more than one event.

e) All speeches and programs must be made available to the Tournament Committee upon request.

f) No speech or program may have been used prior to competition in the said school year.

g) Unless noted, AFA-NIET rules are enforced for all individual events.

h) Three rounds of competition will be offered.

i) A contestant must participate in all rounds of an event to receive a final placing/rating in that event.

j) Experimental events can be offered at the discretion of the Tournament Director.  Their placement in conflict patterns will also be at the discretion of the Tournament Director.

k) The following conflict patterns will be used.
• A:  Impromptu Speaking, Informative Speaking, Prose Interpretation
• B:  Duo Interpretation, Extemporaneous Speaking, Programmed Oral Interpretation, Persuasion
• C:  After-Dinner Speaking, Communication Analysis, Dramatic Interpretation, Poetry Interpretation

l) Ideally, contestants should meet new competition each round.  Every effort will be made to ensure such occurrences.  Contestants will not compete against contestants from their own chapter if appropriate pairing options are available.  If not, then such conflicts should be kept to a minimum.

m) The tie breaking procedure will be as follows, in listed order, for determining seeds into the first elimination round:  cumulative ranks, cumulative rating points, cumulative ratio/reciprocal ranks

n) The top three from each elimination round section will advance to the next level of elimination round competition.

o) Quarterfinals will be held for events larger than 72 participants.  Semifinals will be held for events larger than 45 participants. 

p) All elimination round sections will be seeded according to the AFA-NIET guidelines.  Seeded brackets will not be broken.

q) Final placings for each elimination round section will be determined by the following criteria in its listed order:  majority of “1” ranks , lowest cumulative ranks, judges’ preference (in the case of a tie of cumulative ranks), highest cumulative rating points, cumulative ratio/reciprocal ranks.

Section 5. Debate

a) Any format and division(s) of team or single-person debate can be offered.  The decision of what debate events to offer will be made by the Tournament Director.

b) Unless otherwise clarified by the NCT invitation or by-laws, each debate format will be operate under the rules of the national association that sponsors the format in question.

c) Any student may enter any open division.  Any student with less than two years of college competition may enter any junior division.  Any student with less than two semesters of any debate competition may enter any novice division. 

d) Each format making use of a national topic will use the current topic of said format.  The creation of other topics will be at the discretion of the Tournament Director.

e) Every debate entry will be scheduled for six preliminary rounds of debate with an equal number of rounds on each side of the resolution, unless entries do not warrant six rounds.

f) Each debate judge will be required to submit a ballot that includes a winner, points and ranks as appropriate to the format, and comments to explain the decision and/or offer insight into the judge’s perception of the round.

g) The number of elimination rounds offered in each format will be based on the size of the division’s entry, and ultimately determined by each association’s guidelines for their respective format.  The Tournament Director may choose to offer fewer elimination rounds than entries warrant for larger divisions.

h) The first two rounds of each division will be randomly paired.  Pairing strategies for subsequent rounds will be based on the size of the division and determined by the Tournament Director.

i) Procedures for advancing teams to elimination rounds will be in the following listed order:  highest number of wins, highest adjusted team points, highest double-adjusted team points, opposition record, z-score.

j) Elimination round pairings will be based on seeds established by preliminary round records.  Seeded brackets for elimination rounds will not be broken.

k) Procedures for determining speaker awards will be in the following listed order:  adjusted points, total points, double-adjusted points, ranks, z-score.

Section 6. Student Congress

a. Each school may enter up to five legislators in student congress.  Student congress will be held concurrently with non-CEDA/NDT debate formats. 

b. Each session will be divided into houses of no more than 25 students each. 

c. An official scorer and parliamentarian will be appointed by the tournament director for each house.  Timekeepers and Pages will also be provided. 

d. Parliamentary procedures, as outlined in Robert’s Rules of Order, will be followed. 

e. Speakers will be rated by the official scorer on their speaking and advocacy skills and by the parliamentarian on their understanding and use of parliamentary procedure.  Six students from each house will be designated “Outstanding Legislators” based on the composite evaluation of the official scorer and the parliamentarian and will be awarded sweepstakes points in accordance with the by-laws.

f. Individuals wishing to submit resolutions should do so in writing to the Tournament Director by the announced deadline.  Every school entered in Congress must enter a minimum of one resolution.

g. Resolutions must be prepared according to the following guidelines:
a. The specific area must be typed at the top of the submitted resolution.
b. The author(s) and school affiliation must be listed.
c. The resolution must be typed, double-spaced, with each line numbers and no longer than one page.
d. Every resolution must contain a clause which begins “Be in Resolved…”
e. The “Be it Resolved…” clause must be preceded by one or more “Whereas…” clauses.
f. The introductory speaker supporting the resolution must be identified.
g. The session in which the author(s) would like the resolution considered must be indicated.
h. Properly framed resolutions which are submitted by the deadline will be copied and mailed to each team participating in student congress two weeks prior to the tournament.

h. All student legislators will be assigned seating and must occupy their assigned seat when requesting recognition from the Presiding Officer.

i. A student legislator may speak any number of times as long as the Presiding Officer formally recognizes him/her.  In order to be recognized by the Presiding Officer, a student legislator must stand and request recognition.

j. All speeches will be limited to three minutes each.  The official scorer may penalize students who exceed their allotted time for any speech.

k. The agenda will be established within each House on the basis of one vote per team represented in that House.

l. Each House will observe the following General Order of Business:
a. Call to order
b. Roll call of members and confirmation of seating charts
c. Special orders
d. Review of special rules
e. Review of congress procedures
f. Special announcements and questions
g. Consideration of the agenda
h. Floor debate on resolutions
i. Vote on resolutions
j. Adjournment

m. During any speech a student legislator may ask for recognition and ask the speaker if s/he will yield to a question.  The speaker may or may not agree to yield to any question(s).  Time used to ask and answer questions will be taken from the speaker’s allotted time.

n. Any speaker may designate that s/he will not yield to questions.  If the speaker makes such a designation, student legislators who interrupt the speaker before t he speech has been completed will be considered out of order.  The speaker’s allotted time will not be affected by such interruptions.

o. If the speaker designates s/he will not yield to questions, student legislators may ask questions at the conclusion of the speech if any of the speaker’s allotted time remains.

p. Each House may use prescribed parliamentary procedure to suspend the rules to allow for automatic cross-examination at the conclusion of every speech.  Should a House elect to make such a procedural designation, it must specify how much time will be allocated for cross-examination.  The House may not elect to suspend the rules to alter the speaking time allocated to speakers.

q. The Presiding Officer will continue to recognize speakers until such time that s/he determines that debate about the resolution is no longer advancing substantive consideration of the issue(s) relevant to the resolution, or such time that the House elects, through normal parliamentary procedure, to approve any motion which limits or terminates debate about the resolution.

r. In the case of any dispute about the parliamentary procedures of the House, the Presiding Officer will consult with the parliamentarian.  The ruling of the parliamentarian and the decision of the Presiding Officer will be considered final unless the House elects, through normal parliamentary procedure, to appeal that decision.

Section 7. Reader’s Theatre

a. While reader’s theatre is both oral and visual, the emphasis is on the oral interpretation of the printed word and its resultant effects on the minds, emotions, and imaginations of the listeners/viewers.  The audience should have the feeling of a unified whole in which each performer at all times contributes to the total effect desired.

b. The time limitation for the performance is 25 minutes.  An additional two minutes shall be allowed for both set-up an takedown of material.

c. Reader’s theatre entries must include a minimum of three and a maximum of 14 participants.  Students may not enter more than one reader’s theatre.

d. Programs (handouts) are not allowed in this event.

e. Mechanics of presentation are limited as follows:
a. The audience must have a sense of production being interpreted from a manuscript.  Director, performer, and judges should be allowed freedom to exercise artistic, interpretive judgment; however, manuscripts must be interpreted from during the presentation.
b. Suggestions in contemporary or ensemble dress may be used.  The literature should determine the nature of this suggestion, although costuming should not be a focus of the presentation.
c. Reading stands, chairs, stools, ladders, platforms, steps, props, and/or lighting effects may be used.  However, the limitation of facilities (space, time, equipment, etc.) should govern a director’s concept.
d. Readers may sit, stand, or both and may move from one reading stand or locale to another so long as the movement is consistent with the ideas or moods of the literature and the director’s concept.
e. Music/sound effects, recorded or live, are acceptable as background accompaniment and part of the context.
f. A performer whose sole function is to play a musical instrument on or off stage will be counted in the total number of performers.
Section 8. Hosting and Site Considerations

a. The NCT may be held in a variety of settings, including but not limited to college or university campuses  and hotels.

b. Hosts will be responsible for securing sufficient numbers of hired/volunteer judges, as well as sufficient numbers of rooms for tournament competition and administration.

c. Bids for each NCT will be solicited and voted upon by the National Council.  Hosts will be held responsible for what is proposed in bids.

d. In the case of hotel tournament sites, programs in attendance will be responsible for providing one or more sleeping rooms to be used as competition.  The number of rooms provided will be commensurate with the size of the program’s entry.  Programs not providing sleeping rooms will be charged the tournament rate for two nights lodging for each room required of their entry.