BP Format Gaining Popularity in North America

University of Vermont debaters at Rochester tournament, had nine teams in Worlds/BP

Last year the University of Rochester hosted its first ever division of debating in the Worlds/BP format and twenty teams showed up. This was an impressive number given that it was the first time most of these schools had participated in the format. Now, one year later, the tourn ament is up to 44 teams and at eleven rooms is a decently sized contest. Combine that with a 50+ team policy debate tournament, and you have a lot of teams for what has been a small tounament.

With major tounaments still to come, such as Yale, Hart House, and Canadian BP Nationals at Queens the fall season looks like a good one for BP tournaments. Plus, there will be combined Worlds-Policy tournaments at Western Connecticut and Binghamton. The US Universities Debating Championship will be held at Vermont 3-5 August 2009.

"There seem to be some unhappy people in most USA debate formats, such as policy debate, APDA parliamentary debate, NPDA parliamentary debate and even AFA-LD debate. More and more people are trying the Worlds format, and even if they don't do it exclusively they add it to their competitive mix. This is what we have done and what Cornell and Rochester have done as well," said Alfred Snider of the University of Vermont.

Last year was the first for the Northeast to have a full-year of BP tournaments, and there was a sweepstakes tally kept. It was

1. Vermont
2. Hobart & William Smith
3. St. John's
4. Cornell
5. Rochester

This year it will probably be a much more crowded and competitive field.

More news coming about the progress of this format in North America.