2022-2023 Extemp Central National Points Race: The Structure of This Year’s Competition

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, six national champions (three CFL and three NSDA) are among the seven previous National Points Race winners.

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

The Extemp Central National Points Race divides 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 this year the George Mason University Patriot Games has been downgraded to a fourth tier event due to declining attendance.  Replacing it in third tier status is the University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions (TOC).

The only new tournament in this year’s competition is the Star Tribune Eastview Lightning Classic, which is replacing the Marshall Speech Spectacular tournament as a National Points Race offering in the Midwest.

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.

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 2022-2023:

*Bonus for strong field is denoted in parenthesis.

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

These second tier events each carry significant prestige on the national circuit.  MBA is the season’s first major competition, serving as an elite showcase of talented speakers that earned a bid from last season’s results or the first batch of competitions in the fall.  Harvard is the largest invitational tournament on the calendar.  And CFL Nationals, while not as big or as long of a tournament as NSDA, attracts a massive enough field to warrant second tier status.

Here are the points awarded for these second tier tournaments in 2022-2023:

Third Tier:  Glenbrooks, the California Invitational, the University of Kentucky Tournament of Champions (TOC), and the Tournament of Champions (TOC) of Extemporaneous Speaking

Glenbrooks has been a staple in the third tier since the National Points Race’s creation.  It is arguably the biggest and most prestigious competition on the national circuit during the fall semester.  The California Invitational attracts a top-tier field of West Coast extempers each season.  And the University of Kentucky’s TOC is starting to outduel the TOC at Northwestern University in terms of attracting talent, creating a battle between wildcats over the what the fourth major on the circuit should be.

Here are the points awarded for these third tier tournaments in 2022-2023:

Fourth Tier:  The Yale Invitational, the George Mason University Patriot Games, the University of Texas Longhorn Classic, the Sunvitational, and the Barkley Forum

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 and Sunvitational draw competitors throughout the South.  As noted above, George Mason slips back into this tier for the first time in several years because of declining attendance.  With in-person tournaments resuming, it will be interesting to see if GMU rises back to third tier status again.

Here are the points awarded for these fourth tier tournaments in 2022-2023:

Fifth Tier:  The National Season Opener at the University of Kentucky, the New York City Invitational, Florida Blue Key, James Logan MLK Invitational, the Star Tribute Eastview Lightning Classic, and Stanford National Invitational:

All of the tournaments in the fifth tier are respectable events that draw strong fields in their local area.  This allows the National Points Race to provide more opportunities for extempers on the West Coast, as well as the Midwest.

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

For tournaments like Blue Key that allow extempers to compete in each category, only an extemper’s highest finish among the two will count to avoid a double counting of points.

Here are the points awarded for these fifth tier tournaments in 2022-2023:

Extemp Central looks forward to a fun National Points Race in 2022-2023.  We always welcome suggestions to improve the competition, so if you have any please feel free to comment and/or e-mail at [email protected].