National Forensic League, Speech & Debate Honor Society

Tournaments

Reaching the Pinnacle

The National Forensic League has run the National Speech & Debate Tournament continuously since 1931 (except for the World War II years) and the National Student Congress since 1938. Events and rules have changed with the growth of the NFL, but the league's commitment to providing exciting competition has remained constant.

Six main speech events, four types of debate competition, two consolation speech events and four supplemental speech events produce national champions at the end of an action-packed week of competition. Winning students are rewarded with outstanding trophies and over $130,000 in college scholarships.

Pictured is the 2009 Phyllis Flory Barton Top Debate Speaker, Vijay Sridharan from Bellarmine College Prep, CA.

Celebrating Local Excellence

The National Forensic League is comprised of 103 districts that govern the affiliate and charter schools in all 50 states. A District Committee and District Chair are elected to represent the membership in various NFL regions. The District Committees are charged with running the district qualifying tournament. This tournament determines which students attend the NFL National Speech Tournament from each respective district.

This page is devoted to reporting any district news and making district chairs and committees accessible. Please visit the individual district website for local and regional information from around the NFL.

Using Joy of Tournaments for District Tournaments

Districts are strongly encouraged to use the Joy of Tournaments website and software to run their district tournament. For information on how to use Joy of Tournaments at your next district tournament, click here.

Middle School National Tournament

NFL and IDEA offer a Middle School National Tournament for students in grades 6, 7, or 8 in an NJFL chapter school who qualifies through participation in oral communication activities. This tournament is similar to the Lincoln Financial Group/NFL National Tournament and is held in a new location each year. Without IDEA, this tournament would not be possible and we thank them for their partnership to bring recognition to middle school forensics.