We’re pleased to announce the publication of our speech and debate rules for the new season. This year, we have aimed to do the following.
- Simplify by removing those rules we no longer deem useful
- Clarify our content and make it more easily digestible and accessible for our competitors
- Consider a few items to add
To see the new rules, please visit our rules page.
Here’s an overview of the changes for 2026.
Simplify
- For both speech and debate, we have removed some rules that related to competitive guidance rather than boundaries that require adjudication for fair competition. Many of these were rules for online competition.
- We have aligned the speech and debate rules verbiage where possible and have hyperlinked definitions in the same style.
Clarify
- We have reworded some of our rules for clarification.
- We have removed our 2025 Guidelines, allowing us to present “one page” of rules for each event. Those tips and tools will be moved to other places.
- Some policies on our event rules pages have been reorganized.
Add
- We have added “tag lines” to each rule for easier navigation. We hope this helps everyone quickly find what they need!
- We have added two new speech events: Biblical Presentation and Oratorical Thematic! These events have been brought back from past seasons and refreshed with new rules to explore!
For those who want more details, you can check out our Summary of Changes document. We are so excited for this new season and are already praying in anticipation for our families! Remember, the Speech Committee and Debate Committee are here to help throughout the year, so please reach out with any questions along the way.
Send your questions to:
- Speech Committee gro.ACFCN@eettimmoChceepS
- Debate Committee gro.ACFCN@eettimmoCetabeD