2010-2011 Extemp Central National Points Race: This Year’s Point Structure

by Logan Scisco

Last month, Extemp Central revealed the tournaments that will make up this year’s Extemp Central National Points Race.  Unlike last year, no tournaments were dropped from the National Points Race, although George Mason University Patriot Games and the Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions switched tiers.  The decision to keep the California Invitational in the fifth tier aroused criticism, but the placement decisions are final for the 2010-2011 season.  Any changes in the California Invitational’s position, as well as that of any other tournament, will take place after the National Forensic League (NFL) National Speech and Debate Tournament in June.

Last year, Extemp Central made the decision to divide tournaments into five tiers.  This system was designed to award competitors who performed well at larger national circuit tournaments and to provide more volatility to the standings.  The five tier system allowed for a major shakeup in the standings at NFL Nationals.  After the International Extemporaneous Speaking results were read, James Mohan of Danville High School in Kentucky momentarily held the National Points Race lead, but when it was revealed that Jacob Baker of Bellarmine College Prep in California won the final round, he surged past Mohan and became the National Points Race champion.

Extemp Central hopes for another exciting National Points Race this season.  This article will reveal how many points each tournament will be worth.  The National Points Race is designed to award extempers for victories and top three finishes.  During the season, even if there are defects, the points scale will not be changed.  This is meant to provide fairness and uniformity to the season’s rankings.

In a major change from the previous two years, Extemp Central will award points for octo-finalists, quarter-finalists, and semi-finalists at first tier, third tier, and fourth tier tournaments, respectively.  More of these details will be explained below.  The biggest impact this will have is on the National Team Points Race.  To prevent the National Team Points Race from becoming an exclusive competition for large schools, Extemp Central has decided to only award points to a school’s top three finishers per tournament unless that school gets more than three students to finals.  So, if a school gets four finalists they will be credited with points for all four students.  However, if a school gets three to finals and one to semi-finals then they will only be credited points for its three finalists.  Since this has never been tried before, Extemp Central will closely monitor the National Team Points Race and see how this plays out.  Extemp Central hopes that expanding the amount of students who will receive National Points Race points will make the National Points Race and National Team Points Race more dynamic competitions.  As always, we welcome any feedback and suggestions about our National Points Race structure.

First Tier:  NFL Nationals

The NFL National Tournament remains the only first tier tournament in our rankings, a position that it has held each year there is a National Points Race.  The decision to award students for their placing in semi-finals was well received and will be continued this season.  The practice of awarding twenty-five bonus points to the winner of the final round of United States Extemporaneous Speaking and International Extemporaneous Speaking will also continue.

There are two major changes to how points will be awarded for NFL Nationals in this year’s rankings.  The first is that points will be awarded at a flat rate to students who make the octo-final and quarter-final rounds.  This will reward all students who successfully navigate the first six rounds of the tournament.

The biggest, and arguably most controversial, change is that there will be an additional fifty points awarded to the extemp category that has the deeper field.  This will apply to finalists.  Semi-finalists will receive a thirty point boost.  Quarter-finalist and octo-finalists will receive a twenty and ten point boost, respectively.  In the last two years Extemp Central has given points equally to finishers in International and United States Extemp.  However, it has been argued that this is not an accurate representation of the tournament because USX and IX usually do not have equally deep fields.  Last year, more National Points Race competitors and a larger number of consistent finishers on the national circuit were in International Extemp.  This does not mean that the United States Extemp final or its field were not good.  The argument is merely that from top to bottom, International Extemp attracted more of the top competitors on the national circuit and in the National Points Race.  For sports fans, this change is akin to a strength of schedule rating.  In order to index the “quality” of both fields, Extemp Central will look at the top 25 in the National Points Race prior to NFL.  Whichever category has the most top 25 National Points Race participants will receive the fifty point bonus.  If both categories are equal in terms of top 25 participants, then no bonus will be awarded.

Here are the points awarded for NFL Nationals this season:

*Bonus for stronger field is denoted in parenthesis.

As always, Extemp Central welcomes feedback on how people feel about this system.  If we find it to be an utter disaster, we will switch it back for the 2011-2012 season.

Second Tier:  The Montgomery Bell Academy Extemp Round Robin

The Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin remains the sole second tier tournament for the second year in a row.  No points changes were made for the Montgomery Bell Extemp Round Robin this year.  Although the points awarded at other tournaments expanded, Extemp Central believed that it would not be fair to simply award points to all sixteen competitors for showing up.  MBA does rank competitors from first through sixteenth after its ten rounds of competition are over, but these rankings are not publicized so that the extempers who finish near the bottom are not embarrassed.  Since MBA is an exclusive, invite-only tournament that doesn’t necessarily make its entry conditions as fair as other tournaments where we have expanded the points structure.  An exclusive tournament calls for an exclusive point structure that will still only award points for the top six finishers.

Here are the points that will be awarded to the top six at the 2011 MBA Extemp Round Robin:

Third Tier:  CFL Nationals, Glenbrooks, George Mason University Patriot Games, and the Harvard Invitational

The third tier has more tournament than any other tier in the National Points Race.  This year, George Mason University moves into the third tier after having a stronger field than the Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC).  Extemp Central will not calculate the GMU Extemp Round Robin into the National Points Race because the same competitors do the Round Robin and the regular tournament.

In this year’s National Points Race, points will be awarded to students who make the quarter-final rounds and beyond at the tournaments listed above.  For tournaments like CFL Nationals and Harvard, no points will be awarded to extempers who drop in the octo-final round.

Here is the breakdown for how points will be awarded at third tier tournaments:

Fourth Tier:  The Yale Invitational, the Barkley Forum, and the Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC)

The Extemporaneous Speaking Tournament of Champions (TOC) falls into the fourth tier this year because of a drop in the quality of its field.  For any extempers reading this, Extemp Central encourages you to look into attending this year’s TOC at Northwestern University.  It’s a fun tournament and the hospitality is excellent.  All three fourth tier tournaments are evenly spaced out on the calendar, with Yale occurring in late September, the Barkley Forum in late January, and the TOC in early May.

In this year’s National Points Race, points will be awarded to students who make the semi-final rounds and beyond at the tournaments listed above.  Therefore, if you find yourself in a quarter-final round at the Barkley Forum or the Extemp TOC you need to make sure you survive it if you want to earn National Points Race points.

Here are the points that will be awarded at fourth tier tournaments this season:

Fifth Tier:  The Wake Forest National Early Bird, the St. Marks Heart of Texas Invitational, and the California Invitational

The fifth tier is the last tier of the National Points Race and includes tournaments with a decent regional draw.  The situation with the California Invitational has already been addressed, but Extemp Central will examine the results of this year’s tournament and weigh in on whether the California Invitational will go into a higher tier or whether a special designation will be created for it between the fourth and fifth tiers.

No points will be awarded to extempers who finish outside of the top six at these tournaments.  Like last year, a comparison of how extempers place at St. Marks in IX and USX will be used to determine how to award points there.  A breakdown of how this will be done will be posted before the St. Marks tournament.

Here are the points that will be awarded at fifth tier tournaments this season:

Again, the point structure listed above is final for the 2010-2011 season.  Extemp Central hopes that an expansion of the points system will make both points races more exciting for readers.  However, creating a dynamic National Points Race will require complete results for all of the tournaments listed above.  Extemp Central can’t be at all of this year’s major national circuit events, so make sure that you send in results if you have them.  The National Points Race kicks off tomorrow at the Wake Forest National Early Bird so good luck to extempers attending that tournament.

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