The Calvin Coolidge Presidential Foundation is proud to announce its annual Coolidge Online Open, a one-day debate tournament that will be held on Saturday, March 29, 2025, using Tabroom.com’s virtual tournament capabilities. We are excited to hold a Coolidge Cup qualifying tournament online again this year to reach students across the country and provide another opportunity to earn a bid!
Overview of the Tournament
Date: Saturday, March 29, 2025.
Times: On the day of the tournament, participants should log on by 10:30 AM EDT. A detailed schedule will be posted soon.
Format: 1v1 Coolidge debate format.
Location: Online via Tabroom.com. All participants will need a Tabroom.com login in order to register; click here to create one if you do not already have one.
Eligibility: All students currently residing in a U.S. state or territory enrolled in grades 9-12.
Cost: Free.
Registration: Registration closes Tuesday, March 25, at 11:59 PM EDT.
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. Experience with debating or judging is not necessary. Note that the Coolidge Foundation uses only volunteer citizen judges; we do not hire judges for pay.
Attire: Business professional.
Resolution and Research Brief
At this tournament students will debate both sides of “Resolved: On balance, increasing tariffs on Mexico benefits the United States’ economy.” The Foundation has prepared a research brief on this topic to 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 an Open/Varsity division. All students grades 9 to 12 from any school are eligible to compete, including independent entries and homeschool students.
Participants will begin Saturday with brief opening remarks and four rounds of competition for all competitors to follow. 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. If more than 60 debaters participate in all rounds of the tournament, we will award bids to the top six debaters, and if more than 80 debaters participate in all rounds, we will award bids to the top eight debaters.
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 education resources that provide 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.
Registration for Competitors
Registration opens soon.
Registration for Judges
Registration opens soon.