The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation is proud to announce its annual Coolidge Texas Open, a one-day debate tournament that will be held on Saturday, January 25, 2025, in Dallas, Texas. On Saturday, January 25, the tournament will begin with a special topic seminar and showcase debate at the historic Old Parkland campus before moving to Southern Methodist University. We are excited to bring a Coolidge Cup qualifying tournament to the Metroplex again this year!

Overview of the Tournament
Date: Saturday, January 25, 2025.
Times: On Saturday, participants should arrive at Old Parkland by 8:30 AM. Awards will conclude at SMU by 6:30 PM. A detailed schedule will be posted soon.
Format: 1v1 Coolidge debate format.
Location: Old Parkland and Southern Methodist University, building(s) to be announced.
Eligibility: All students currently enrolled in grades 6-12.
Cost: Free with lunch provided.
Registration: Registration closes Tuesday, January 21, at 11:59 PM CST. Entries will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis. If and when we reach capacity, we will move to a waiting list ordered by time of entry.
Judges: Volunteer citizen judges are provided; attendees have no requirement to provide judges but are encouraged to provide judges at a ratio of one judge for every two competitors or fraction thereof.
Attire: Business professional.

Resolution and Research Brief
The resolution for this tournament will be announced soon. The Foundation will prepare a research briefto aid in your preparation. You are not limited to the arguments or evidence in the brief. In fact, you are welcome and encouraged to use the brief as a starting point and build upon it by doing your own additional research and case writing.

Tournament Structure
This is a one-day tournament with a Middle School/Novice division and an Open/Varsity division. All students grades 6 to 12 from any school are eligible to compete, including independent entries and homeschool students. All 6th, 7th, and 8th graders must compete in the Middle School/Novice division since they are not eligible to earn Coolidge Cup qualification.

Participants will begin at Old Parkland on Saturday with a topic seminar from a subject matter expert followed by a showcase debate by 1890 Society members. We will then move to SMU to begin competition (transportation provided for those who need it), for lunch and four rounds of competition for all competitors. Competitors will be paired randomly for round one, and paired high-low within brackets thereafter. To clarify, this means students debate an opponent with the same win-loss record as their own from round two onwards.

The top four finishers will each receive an invitation to the 2025 Coolidge Cup, which is a national invitational speech and debate tournament sponsored by the Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation and held in President Coolidge’s historic hometown of Plymouth, Vermont, on July 2-4, 2025. Learn more about the Coolidge Cup.

Format and Style
Students will compete in the Coolidge 1v1 debate format, the same format that is used at the Coolidge Cup. For those new to debating in this format, we highly recommend reviewing our Debate Guide, which provides information about this particular style and rules. Consistent with Coolidge debate's mission, this tournament will recruit and use volunteer citizen judges. Schools are not required to provide judges for this tournament, but are encouraged to do so at a ratio of one judge for every two competitors or fraction thereof. Please ensure that any volunteer judges you recruit are familiar with the Coolidge format and its mission to remain accessible and persuasive for a broad, civic audience.

Questions
If you have any questions about the tournament, the Coolidge Cup, or about judging, please contact the Coolidge Foundation's Director of Speech and Debate, Jonathan Peele.