'Overlooked' Binghamton University debate team second NY school to win national tournament

Binghamton University's Speech and Debate Team won first place in the Cross Examination Debate Association National Tournament, becoming only the second team from New York to do so since the tournament began in 1981.

The win is the first for Binghamton University, and its only precedent in the state is a win from New York University in 2003. In recognition of their success, Broome County Executive Jason Garnar named March 25 "Binghamton University Speech and Debate Team Day."

Joseph Schatz, Binghamton University's director of debate, said the team's success was due to hard work and collaboration. Next week, the team will travel to Atlanta for the National Debate Championship.

Binghamton U. wins first place at CEDA tournament

Nearly 90 teams showed up to debate in Fullerton, California, with Binghamton defeating some big names in Harvard and Long Beach, and ultimately besting reigning two-time champion Wake Forest in the finals. The tournament, which took place from March 22-26, consisted of 14 rounds of debate, each taking about two hours.

For the tournament, teams debate the same topic each round, but are assigned either the affirmative or negative side — meaning throughout a tournament, a team must argue both for and against the same topic. In order to win, a team must come up with clever and innovative ways to outmaneuver their opponents. This year, the topic of debate was the United States' use of nuclear force.

"Anything about debate is ultimately debatable, so you could approach the topic in any number of ways beyond the United States Federal Government," said Schatz. "You could engage with it philosophically, you could say there are more important things to talk about — there are infinite ways you could approach it."

Binghamton's entire debate team consists of around 30 students, with 10-15 students traveling for tournaments. Six students were chosen to compete at CEDA Nationals.

Teams enter as pairs of competitors, giving Binghamton three teams who competed in the tournament. After making it to the quarterfinals, two Binghamton teams were scheduled to debate each other.

When two teams from the same school are paired, the one with the better record automatically advances, meaning the team had time to work together to scout and prepare for the opponents they would face in the semifinals and finals. In the end, Eli Louis and Akif Choudhury took home the trophy for Binghamton University.

"It was a full team effort to be able to win that championship," said Schatz.

Binghamton's debate team looks to grow

Leading up to tournaments, teams meet for more than eight hours a day on weekends, and Schatz says students work multiple hours every day to ensure they are prepared. Preparation consists of reviewing footage of their opponents, reviewing sources used by their opponents and doing practice speeches.

"Really it is a full-time job on top of class commitments for our students, and they work with our coaches in order to be able to do that," said Schatz. "At the same time, we let anyone who wants to debate join the team, because on top of having the top national teams, we travel with a junior varsity team."

Any student who is interested and can find the debate office is welcome to join the team and travel to tournaments. Schatz said the team's dedication is clear by the work they put in, referencing late nights and weekends.

In order to qualify for the National Debate Tournament, teams must either receive an invite or do well at a district qualifier. After falling just outside the top 16 teams and not receiving an invite, Binghamton pulled off an undefeated 12-0 run at their district qualifier, and followed it with a CEDA Nationals win.

"We felt really good then, and had that success reaffirmed by winning CEDA nationals," said Schatz. "It helps give us momentum and tells us 'Hey, we could do something really amazing here.' We're looking to have some upsets, and show that we were overlooked."

Binghamton University does not offer debate scholarships, but Schatz believes this win will put more eyes on the team and could attract top competitors who may not previously have considered the school.

"It is really an underdog scenario that we overcame, and it is going to bring a lot more students who will want to come to Binghamton explicitly to debate," said Schatz.

This article originally appeared on Binghamton Press & Sun-Bulletin: Binghamton University debate team second in NY to win this competition