International Public Debate Association

The International Public Debate Association (IPDA), inaugurated on 15 February 1997 at St. Mary's University, Texas in San Antonio, is a national debate league currently active in the states of Arkansas, Louisiana, Kansas, Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Florida, Georgia, and Oklahoma. The central focus of IPDA is to promote a debate format that emphasizes public speaking and real-world persuasion skills over the use of evidence and speed. To further this goal, IPDA predominantly uses lay judges in order to encourage an audience-centered debate style.¹ While most member programs within the International Public Debate Association are associated with colleges or universities, participation in IPDA tournaments is open to anyone whose education level is equivalent to secondary school or higher.²

IPDA primarily utilizes a one-on-one, or individual, debate format in which one debater takes the side of the affirmative where they have the burden of advocating and proving the resolution. The other debater takes the side of the negative where they have the burden of refuting the affirmative's case. For each round, the two debaters are given five possible resolutions. The negative begins the topic selection by striking one resolution, then the affirmative strikes one resolution. The negative strikes again. Thus, the affirmative has two resolutions to choose from. The affirmative then strikes one of the remaining resolutions, selecting the other as the topic for the round. After the topic has been selected, both debaters have thirty minutes to prepare a case.

The round itself has a maximum length of 26 minutes, divided as follows:

IPDA also offers a team format of public debate. The team format consists of 2 teams made up of 4 debaters, 2 representing each school, with one team representing the Affirmative and the other representing the Negative. Each debater will speak a maximum of 2 speeches each round, usually according to their speaker order determined by the team themselves, numbered as First and Second.

A team round itself has a length of 40 minutes and is divided as follows:

Most IPDA tournaments offer four divisions of competition. The Novice division is open to any person without a bachelor's degree who has competed in less than 8 debate tournaments in their entire life. The Junior Varsity division consists of students without a bachelor's degree and those that have either competed in the maximum number of Novice tournaments available to them (8) OR if they have competed in 16 debate tournaments in any capacity at the collegiate level in any combination. The Varsity division is open to any person without a bachelor's degree and those that have not competed within the division for more than 10 semesters. The Professional division has no restrictions on participation and includes participants who are undergraduates, graduate students, professors, coaches, and professionals. As of the 2009 Convention, the Open division has been renamed the Professional division.

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