The Battle of the (Debate) Bands, Pt 2

UPenn used to run in the Fall. It came late to the game, so to speak, so Yale had claimed one weekend, and Monticello had claimed another. That left one weekend that was, as often as not, on the Jewish holidays. I went down there once, and had a pretty good time. Our team did well, and I enjoyed the nice weather on the nice campus, but I don’t think we ever went back again more than once, because they started competing with Monticello, which for me was no contest. High schools always trump colleges, simple as that. As for competing with Yale, I don’t think they ever did, but that was beside the point. Yale had become about the worst run tournament on the planet, and I simply didn’t go at all. Midnight is a little late to start a round, if you ask me… The rebirth of Yale is another story altogether.

I lost track of UPenn for a while, because it always seemed to be some weekend when I was already booked, or something. I couldn’t tell you why I wasn’t going. It had nothing to do with UPenn per se. But for all practical purposes they were a a tournament roaming the desert, lost and lorn.

Meanwhile, there was Harvard. First of all, in terms of owning weekends, discussed last time, keep in mind that there is no reason why two complementary tournaments can’t run on the same weekend. For instance, for the longest time we ran MHLs on the same weekends as various invitationals. The invitationals were for the varsity and the MHLs, usually at a nearby school in the same district, were for the young ‘uns. This worked well, and we might do it again in the future in Poughkeepsie. On the other hand, the year that there was a weekend collision caused by Emory (which didn’t give a crap, if you asked me, if their playing fast and loose with their weekend hurt the community they were allegedly supporting with their tournament), and Scarsdale and Newark were on the same weekend, was a nightmare. I love both of these tournaments. Having to pick one was a mug’s game. No one was happy.

Anyhow, the idea that you could run another tournament on the same weekend as Harvard isn’t exactly unheard of, at least not in California, where they do just that, at the Octas bid level. But there’s not a big conflict, because of geography. But what if… What if people wanted to run some other tournament, also in the northeast, on the same weekend as Harvard? Why would that be? And what would be the goal of that other tournament? What need would it fill, what constituency would it serve?

Well, let’s look at the facts, rather than the opinions. It doesn’t matter if people think that Harvard is a good, bad or indifferent tournament. I have my opinions, but I haven’t been there in years for a reason that is not subjective: It’s too expensive. My team can’t afford it. The last time we were there we spent the equivalent of our entire annual budget the subsequent year, after we lost some funding (ever hear of the economy?). I couldn’t afford to go if I wanted to. The tournament itself is more expensive than any other invitational, plus the cost of hotels in Boston is prohibitive. End of story.

So the thinking at UPenn was, why not offer an affordable alternative in the northeast? Offer top drawer tabbing, get good deals at hotels, genial hospitality, charge reasonable fees, get it over by Sunday night and keep the numbers workable. It was hoped that, if we did it, they would come. And they did. Not in great numbers at first, but ever growing. This year the PF field was over a hundred, from near and far. The speech fields were very competitive, and LD was no pushover. Plus, there was a novice LD division. The popularity of the tournament is set. The move to this weekend was a good one. I think CP was the one who had it. He was right. Simple as that.

You don’t have to choose between Harvard and UPenn because they’re offering different tournaments. You pick the one that’s right for you. If you don’t know which that might be, try both in subsequent years. The thing is, there’s plenty of forensicians out there, enough to fill both these tournaments, and Berkeley out in California, and probably a bunch of others as well. The key to being a good coach is not only working with the team but finding the right venues for your team to compete. If you have limited funds, that’s also an issue, and one that might preclude all college tournaments, because honestly, once you throw in big cities and hotels and the like, the price tag is high no matter how you slice it. Plenty of teams go a long way paying little or nothing at local leagues, and you know something? The educational value to the students is just about the same. Anyone who thinks otherwise needs to roam around the real world one day and look at how the lessons of forensics are integrated into lives and careers.

Anyhow, I could offer all kinds of other reasons in favor of UPenn or against Harvard, but they’re not as straightforward as the simple fact that ownership of a weekend isn’t literal. My tournament owns its weekend, but there’s plenty of tournaments around the country on that same weekend. There’s a speech tournament just down the road, run by my local CFL league. A conflict? Hardly. A complement? Indeed. UPenn and Harvard are complementary. Both can fill up to the brim absent attendance at the other, so any competition between the two is more perceived than real.

Me, I’ll keep going to UPenn. We have fun in the tab room, it’s a short walk to Starbucks, there’s a great food court in the basement (moose tracks ice cream!), a nice tournament hotel that gives you tokens for the trolley, and it’s about the same distance from my school as Boston. If someone on my team wants to chase a TOC bid up in the yard, they do so with my blessing (and on their dime). But the team as a whole, we’re with the Quakers.