In which we partake in our annual feast of Kentucky vitriol

The TOC was designed to break all 5-2s to a “sweet sixteen” round. If you do the math, this means a field of 72. Of course, the pyramid doesn’t always break perfectly, but the point is clear. To get these 72 champion teams, from Policy or LD, a system for the accumulation of bids was required. I gather that originally the bids were established by looking at any tournament and measuring the number of states represented and the number of teams participating against a preset formula, and then pulling off the top until you reached 72 entrants. Later, this evolved into determining in advance a set of bid tournaments that would provide the field of 72 on a regular basis. Becoming, and remaining, a bid tournament was hotly contested, and argued annually by a group of TOC advisers, with J. W. Patterson, the TOC tournament director, as the final arbiter. 

Things have changed. Obviously this week’s tournament is nothing like any previous TOC, given that where once there was only Policy, there is now everything from Congress to POI and, of course, PF and LD. And there won’t be much scrambling for hotel rooms and dinner reservations. More to the point, the magic number of 72 no longer applies, at least as far as PF is concerned. Even in the pandemic, there are 99 teams "attending" that are fully qualified, not to mention 114 “silver” teams who are not fully qualified. Breaking to a so-called sweet sixteen isn’t happening. 

I balked originally at the whole silver PF thing, and I still eye it as little more than a money grab. Should we have changed the name of the event to the TONC, the Tournament of Non-Champions? Of course, much of my vitriol against it evaporated in the light of the birth of the Middle School TOC (cancelled this year, thank God), where the qualification for entry was not previous success, or even being on a school debate team, but simply sending a check. I love the idea of middle schoolers learning to debate, of learning to acquire the debate thinking skills at that ripe early age. I detest the idea of ten-year-olds developing the idea of competition over all, or participating at a national “event” that has literally no entrance requirements aside from a fat wallet. 

The high school TOC is what it is, and enough schools have bought into it over time that we’re stuck with it. All of its ill consequences, which stem primarily from a bids-over-all slash competition-over-education mentality, are now a fixed part of our universe. What I find curious is that, even when TOC trips over its own feet creating events for non-champions, nobody blinks an eye. I mean, if next year they announce a Bronze PF Division for teams who have never earned a bid, or maybe a Brass PF Division for teams who have never debated anyone but their parents, I’m sure all the potential attendees will be sending in their checks at the first opportunity. Personally, I’m holding out for a pre-school division. My two-year-old granddaughter looks ripe to me for PSTOC, and by cracky, I’ve got the checkbook to prove it!