KU Debate qualifies for National Debate Tournament for 55th consecutive season

LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Debate team of juniors Mickey McMahon, of Leawood, and Michael Scott, of Glenview, Illinois, were selected as automatic qualifiers for the National Debate Tournament. The top 16 teams in the country based on season-long performance are selected by the NDT National Committee to receive automatic qualification to the national tournament. This is the 55th consecutive year that KU Debate has qualified for the National Debate Tournament.

In 1973, the National Debate Tournament began recognizing the top 16 teams in the country as automatic first-round at-large qualifiers for the tournament. McMahon and Scott are the 42nd KU duo to receive a first-round automatic qualification to the national tournament. They ended the regular season ranked eighth in the country in the College Policy Debate Ratings. This is the third time that McMahon and Scott have qualified to compete at the National Debate Tournament.

Joining KU as automatic qualifiers for the National Debate Tournament are teams from Dartmouth College, Emory University, George Mason University, Harvard University, Liberty University, Northwestern University, the University of California-Berkeley, the University of Kentucky, the University of Michigan, the University of Southern California, the University of Texas and Wake Forest University. 

KU will seek to qualify additional teams for the NDT through regional qualifying tournaments and a second-round at-large process that fill out the rest of the 78-team field. The national tournament will be held at James Madison University from March 31 to April 4. KU has reached the Final Four at the NDT in five of the last six seasons including last year and last won the national championship in 2018.