2017-2018 Extemp Central National Points Race Structure

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The National Points Race is a season-long competition that seeks to identify the top extempers across a select group of prestigious national circuit events.  Extemp Central recognizes that in some years the top extemper in the nation may not win the National Points Race due to the inability of some competitors to travel extensively.  Still, five national champions (two CFL and three NSDA) are among the six previous National Points Race winners.

Here is a listing of past National Points Race winners and runner-ups:

For much of the National Points Race’s history, Extemp Central has divided national circuit tournaments into five tiers.  Tournaments were placed in their respective tier due to their level of prestige, size, geographic location, and – most importantly – their ability to attract top-tier competitors.  It should be noted that the position of all of the tournaments on a particular tier is not fixed from season to season.  For example, seasoned readers will find that the newly christened National Speech and Debate Season Opener at the USet featured imageniversity of Kentucky, which replaced the Wake Forest National Early Bird, is not in this year’s rankings due to the fact that it had very poor attendance.  For the same reason, St. Mark’s has been removed as a tournament in the National Points Race.

There are some new tournaments in this year’s National Points Race.  These include the University of Texas Longhorn Classic and the Sunvitational, both of which debut as fourth tier events due to the size of their respective fields and, especially in the case of the Sunvitational, its pull of competitors from a multitude of regions.

One of the reasons we are able to maintain the National Points Race is that we have great readers who contribute results.  If you attend a National Points Race tournament this year, please let us know the results of these tournaments.  For bigger tournaments, a tab sheet is preferable since competitors who finish outside of finals still earn points.  This is especially true of West Coast tournaments as it has been difficult for us to traditionally get a hold of those results in a timely manner.

First Tier:  NSDA Nationals

Since NSDA Nationals does not have a unified extemp category – something that this author wishes would change – the field of the tournament that has the “deeper” field will receive a fifty point bonus.  The extemp category that has the most extempers from the top twenty-five in its field will receive the bonus.  If there is a tie for whatever reason, no bonus will be awarded.

Here are the points awarded for NSDA Nationals in 2017-2018:

*Bonus for strong field is denoted in parenthesis.

Second Tier:  The Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin, Harvard, and CFL Nationals

CFL Nationals moved into the second tier after a string of strong final round and semi-final rounds over the past several seasons.  The tournament’s credibility has improved as a result, moving it above the third tier.

Here are the points awarded for these second tier tournaments in 2017-2018:

Third Tier:  Glenbrooks, George Mason University Patriot Games, the California Invitational, and the Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC)

Here are the points awarded for these third tier tournaments in 2017-2018:

Fourth Tier:  The Yale Invitational, The University of Texas Longhorn Classic, The Sunvitational, The Barkley Forum, and the University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions (TOC)

This tier is traditionally occupied by strong regional tournaments.  For example, Yale draws well in the Northeast, Texas draws most of the competitors in Texas, and the Barkley Forum draws competitors throughout the South.  If the UK TOC draws a deep field of competitors this year, it could easily move into third tier next year.

Here are the points awarded for these fourth tier tournaments in 2017-2018:

Fifth Tier:  The New York City Invitational, Florida Blue Key, James Logan MLK Invitational, Marshall Speech Spectacular, and Stanford National Invitational:

Extempers that attend Blue Key will not have their points double counted from each category.  Instead, Extemp Central will have a points system to evaluate the top six extempers at each tournament based on their performance.  Those six extempers will receive the fifth tier points.  This same system will apply to extempers in the Longhorn Classic.

Fifth tier tournaments are make-or-break affairs.  Only those extempers who reach the final round will receive points.

Here are the points awarded for these fifth tier tournaments in 2017-2018: