The Nicholas F. Burnett "Hornet Cup" Invitational Speech & Debate Tournament
The Sacramento State University speech & debate team and the Department of Communication Studies invite you to participate in the 2023 Nicholas F. Burnett "Hornet Cup" Invitational to be held on March 24-26, 2023.
The Hornet Cup will feature:
We will have a novice and open division in all Individual Events and a novice, junior, and open division offered for all forms of debate. This year we will be using Forensic Tournament (forensicstournament.net) for all entries. Please make sure that everyone on your team has a verified account and that their ballot preference is set for email.
We hope you will join us as we continue to grow this tournament!
The Hornet Cup will feature:
- NFA-LD Debate
- IPDA Debate
- All 11 NFA individual events
- Our own limited-prep “Triathlon”
We will have a novice and open division in all Individual Events and a novice, junior, and open division offered for all forms of debate. This year we will be using Forensic Tournament (forensicstournament.net) for all entries. Please make sure that everyone on your team has a verified account and that their ballot preference is set for email.
We hope you will join us as we continue to grow this tournament!
This tournament is named to honor Professor Emeritus Dr. Nicholas F. Burnett, who was the Director of Forensics at Sacramento State from 1987 to 1996. Dr. Burnett coached Sacramento State teams to consecutive quarter-finals appearances at CEDA Nationals in 1988 and 1989 in addition to leading the team as it won many regional and national debate awards. After his nearly 10 years coaching the Sac State team, Dr. Burnett served as chair of the Communication Studies Department for five years and finally retired as the Associate Dean for the College of Arts and Letters in 2012. Dr. Burnett was a major supporter of this great activity and has touched the lives of many college debaters through the years. He had an enthusiasm for nurturing novices while at the same time coaching varsity debaters as they sought national titles. And as an administrator, he was a staunch supporter of the debate program, ensuring continued funding through the years of economic strain that hurt so many programs in the CSU. Sadly, Dr. Burnett passed away on December 1, 2021. To recognize him for his dedication and service to debaters across the nation, we host this tournament in his name.
Deadlines and Fees
The Hornet Cup will be ON CAMPUS this year! For registration, postings, and ballots we will be using is ForensicsTournament.net
Deadlines:
Registration is open now!
The deadline for entry is 5 p.m., Wednesday, March 22nd. (Pacific Time)
Fees & Judging:
School Fee - $25
Debate - $30
IE - $10/slot
Each school is expected to provide one judge for every two debaters (LD/IPDA) entered. And one judge for every 5 (or fraction thereof) individual events entries.
The uncovered debater fee will be $70.00.
The uncovered individual event fee will be $30.00.
Deadlines:
Registration is open now!
The deadline for entry is 5 p.m., Wednesday, March 22nd. (Pacific Time)
Fees & Judging:
School Fee - $25
Debate - $30
IE - $10/slot
Each school is expected to provide one judge for every two debaters (LD/IPDA) entered. And one judge for every 5 (or fraction thereof) individual events entries.
The uncovered debater fee will be $70.00.
The uncovered individual event fee will be $30.00.
Hotel Information
We will not have a reserved block, but the following hotels are nearby and should offer a reasonable rate. You can find lots of hotels that are various rates and distances from campus, not all of them are hotels you may be comfortable bringing your team to (please check reviews!) The hotels listed below are all places we would be comfortable in.
Hotel options:
Hampton Inn & Suites Sacramento @ CSUS (closest to campus): (916)451-1135
Larkspur Landing Sacramento (about 1 mile from campus): (855)304-7816
Fairfield Inn Sacramento Cal Expo (about 2 miles from campus): (916)920-5300
TownePlace Suites Sacramento Cal Expo (about 2 miles from campus): (916)920-5400
Hampton Inn & Suites Sacramento @ CSUS (closest to campus): (916)451-1135
Larkspur Landing Sacramento (about 1 mile from campus): (855)304-7816
Fairfield Inn Sacramento Cal Expo (about 2 miles from campus): (916)920-5300
TownePlace Suites Sacramento Cal Expo (about 2 miles from campus): (916)920-5400
Travel Information
The Sacramento Airport is about a 20 minute drive from campus and the Hampton Inn. There are plenty of rental car companies in the airport. To get to campus or the hotel from the airport, take I-5 south, then merge onto highway 50 east towards South Lake Tahoe. Exit at Howe/Power Inn Road and follow the signs to campus.
Sac State’s address is 6000 J Street, 95819. However, you may also have success with your GPS/Navigation by entering specific building names.
Parking:
Students and community visitors to Sacramento may use this convenient payment service to purchase daily parking from their smartphones — no need to visit a physical permit machine.
This service is only valid for student spaces. We recommend Parking Structure 2!
You may also download the free PaybyPhone app from your smartphone app store.
The PayByPhone parking permit is linked to the vehicle’s license plate number (or VIN) that you specify. When the vehicle’s license plate number is checked by the parking officer, it will show the PayByPhone permit purchase.
Sac State’s address is 6000 J Street, 95819. However, you may also have success with your GPS/Navigation by entering specific building names.
Parking:
Students and community visitors to Sacramento may use this convenient payment service to purchase daily parking from their smartphones — no need to visit a physical permit machine.
This service is only valid for student spaces. We recommend Parking Structure 2!
You may also download the free PaybyPhone app from your smartphone app store.
The PayByPhone parking permit is linked to the vehicle’s license plate number (or VIN) that you specify. When the vehicle’s license plate number is checked by the parking officer, it will show the PayByPhone permit purchase.
- Be sure to include the location code: 5115
- New cars with no license plate number can enter the last 7 digits of the vehicle identification number (or VIN).
- Download Sac State Mobile App
- Tap "Commute"
- Tap "Pay By Phone"
- Tap "Register"
- Follow on-screen instructions to register your phone number and enter credit card information
- Tap "Start New Parking"
- Enter your license plate (use last seven digits of VIN if no license plate is available)
- Use the Sac State location code: 5115
- Choose daily or two-hour parking
This year the tournament will operate out of our AIRC building. This building is centrally located on campus, right behind the library and next to the student union. The tabroom will be located in AIRC 1010, which is on the bottom floor.
All of the competition will take place in either the AIRC, Tahoe Hall, or Brighton Hall. Luckily, Google Maps does a really good job with our campus, so you should be able to find these buildings (they are all fairly close to each other) by using your gps. We have also linked campus map below.
Important Locations
Tabroom - AIRC 1010
IPDA Topic Strike - AIRC 1009 (Friday only)
Hospitality Room - AIRC 1009 (Saturday/Sunday)
Extemp Prep - AIRC (TBA)
Awards - Library 11
All of the competition will take place in either the AIRC, Tahoe Hall, or Brighton Hall. Luckily, Google Maps does a really good job with our campus, so you should be able to find these buildings (they are all fairly close to each other) by using your gps. We have also linked campus map below.
Important Locations
Tabroom - AIRC 1010
IPDA Topic Strike - AIRC 1009 (Friday only)
Hospitality Room - AIRC 1009 (Saturday/Sunday)
Extemp Prep - AIRC (TBA)
Awards - Library 11
Internet
While on campus, connect your devices to our official wireless network, eduroam. To keep campus securely connected, we support over 1,600+ Wi-Fi access points, offer guest and event access, continue to upgrade buildings and structures to Wi-Fi 6 speed, as well as expanding Wi-Fi coverage to meet the growing needs of our campus community.
Tournament Procedures
NFA LD
We will use the current NFA-LD topic and adhere to NFA rules.
Divisions may collapse if necessary, but we will make every effort to preserve a novice division. This may mean that we don't break brackets and students from the same team may debate each other. There will be no breaking of brackets in elimination rounds. We will, if necessary, have partial-elimination rounds in order to break all winning records.
We will utilize the RKS Decimal scale for speaker points; points are awarded in one-tenth increments and no ties are allowed.
Tie breakers - All winning records will break, power-matching and seeding will be determined by opponent wins, starting at the break line.
IPDA Debate
We will adhere to the norms and structures of IPDA for speech times, prep, topic strike, and other structural norms. However, please note that this is NOT an IPDA sanctioned tournament so there may be some differences.
For the 2023 Hornet Cup we will proved policy claims in the general area of International Alliances, Treaties, and Organizations.
Individual Events
We are offering all 11 NFA individual events. Please see NFA bylaws for event descriptions.
Collapsing Divisions: Every effort will be made to protect novice competitors; however, if there are fewer than 8 entries in a division, that event may be collapsed. If this occurs, top non-advancing novices will be recognized at the awards ceremony. Additionally, "in order to best utilize judges, when the total of all three divisions of an event is 12 or fewer contestants, with no division having 6 or more contestants, the divisions could be mixed in the same room with the same judge, and the contestants ranked separately.
Forfeiture Rule: Competitors not fulfilling their obligation to comply with the tournament schedule will be subject to forfeiture. Individual events competitors, regardless of double entries, must arrive to rounds within 45 minutes of a round’s scheduled start time or risk forfeiture.
Criteria for Elimination Rounds: Any event with less than seven entries will not have a final round. Events with thirty-four entries should have semi-final round, if possible.
Advancement to Elimination Rounds: No more than half of the field will be advanced to finals. Students will be rank-ordered first by lowest cumulative rankings, finally by the highest reciprocal score (a.k.a. decimal conversion), and finally by the highest cumulative ratings.
Placement/Advancement in Elimination Rounds: Students will be rank-ordered by lowest cumulative rankings, then by judge’s preference, then by the highest cumulative ratings, and finally by the highest reciprocal score (a.k.a. decimal conversion).
Pattern A: POI, Drama, Info, Impromptu, Duo, CA
Pattern B: ADS, Poetry, Prose, Persuasion, Extemp
Limited-Prep Triathlon:
Students entered in triathlon will be entered in Impromptu, Extemp, and Declamation. The triathlon winner is determined by the cumulative scores across all three events, there will be no “final round”. Students will compete in both Impromptu and Extemp with the rest of the field, regardless of whether they are also entered in triathlon, however, only students who are entered in triathlon may enter Declamation. There will be two rounds each of Impromptu and Extemp, with one round of Declamation. The lowest cumulative score will win the triathlon.
Limited Prep Declamation:
In the eighteenth century, a classical revival of the art of public speaking, often referred to as The Elocution Movement was underway. While elocution focused on the voice—articulation, diction, and pronunciation—declamation focused on delivery of the speech. For this event, we have modified the idea of declamation as a limited preparation event. Similar to the model of an extemp round, speakers will enter a common prep room to await their prompt. When their speaker number is drawn, the student will be given three speech transcripts to choose from. These transcripts will be available in a speechdrop.net room and the student will be given the code at draw time. Students will also have access to one printed copy of their transcript if they want it.The students will then have 30 minutes to select their speech, cut/edit, and practice the speech. Before the end of their 30 minute prep time, the student should go to their competition room and deliver a five minute speech (walking time is part of prep time). This five minute cutting should adhere to the original manuscript much in the way an interp cutting would. The student does not need to rewrite or paraphrase the speech.
Judges should evaluate the declamation speech based on delivery and effectiveness of the cutting.
Awards:
We will have awards for all participants in elimination rounds. In debate, we will also recognize the top 5 speakers in each division.
Sweepstakes
The Hornet Cup is a sweepstakes award recognizing the top team based on the results of the top 3 participants from each team (.5 points for each debate prelim win, 1 point for first elim win, 2 points for subsequent elim wins. IE’s will count 2 points for 1st, 1 point for 2nd, .5 point for 3rd, and .25 points final round participants outside of the top 3)
Sacramento State debaters will compete but will NOT be eligible for sweepstakes awards.
We will use the current NFA-LD topic and adhere to NFA rules.
Divisions may collapse if necessary, but we will make every effort to preserve a novice division. This may mean that we don't break brackets and students from the same team may debate each other. There will be no breaking of brackets in elimination rounds. We will, if necessary, have partial-elimination rounds in order to break all winning records.
We will utilize the RKS Decimal scale for speaker points; points are awarded in one-tenth increments and no ties are allowed.
Tie breakers - All winning records will break, power-matching and seeding will be determined by opponent wins, starting at the break line.
IPDA Debate
We will adhere to the norms and structures of IPDA for speech times, prep, topic strike, and other structural norms. However, please note that this is NOT an IPDA sanctioned tournament so there may be some differences.
For the 2023 Hornet Cup we will proved policy claims in the general area of International Alliances, Treaties, and Organizations.
- Students will be provided 5 topics at the beginning of the round.
- Students will rotate striking one topic from the list, beginning with the opposition speaker.
- IPDA prep will begin 30 minutes before the debate begins.
- All winning records will break to festival elims (bronze round, gold/silver round).
- We will use speaker points for seeding/tie breaks
Individual Events
We are offering all 11 NFA individual events. Please see NFA bylaws for event descriptions.
Collapsing Divisions: Every effort will be made to protect novice competitors; however, if there are fewer than 8 entries in a division, that event may be collapsed. If this occurs, top non-advancing novices will be recognized at the awards ceremony. Additionally, "in order to best utilize judges, when the total of all three divisions of an event is 12 or fewer contestants, with no division having 6 or more contestants, the divisions could be mixed in the same room with the same judge, and the contestants ranked separately.
Forfeiture Rule: Competitors not fulfilling their obligation to comply with the tournament schedule will be subject to forfeiture. Individual events competitors, regardless of double entries, must arrive to rounds within 45 minutes of a round’s scheduled start time or risk forfeiture.
Criteria for Elimination Rounds: Any event with less than seven entries will not have a final round. Events with thirty-four entries should have semi-final round, if possible.
Advancement to Elimination Rounds: No more than half of the field will be advanced to finals. Students will be rank-ordered first by lowest cumulative rankings, finally by the highest reciprocal score (a.k.a. decimal conversion), and finally by the highest cumulative ratings.
Placement/Advancement in Elimination Rounds: Students will be rank-ordered by lowest cumulative rankings, then by judge’s preference, then by the highest cumulative ratings, and finally by the highest reciprocal score (a.k.a. decimal conversion).
Pattern A: POI, Drama, Info, Impromptu, Duo, CA
Pattern B: ADS, Poetry, Prose, Persuasion, Extemp
Limited-Prep Triathlon:
Students entered in triathlon will be entered in Impromptu, Extemp, and Declamation. The triathlon winner is determined by the cumulative scores across all three events, there will be no “final round”. Students will compete in both Impromptu and Extemp with the rest of the field, regardless of whether they are also entered in triathlon, however, only students who are entered in triathlon may enter Declamation. There will be two rounds each of Impromptu and Extemp, with one round of Declamation. The lowest cumulative score will win the triathlon.
Limited Prep Declamation:
In the eighteenth century, a classical revival of the art of public speaking, often referred to as The Elocution Movement was underway. While elocution focused on the voice—articulation, diction, and pronunciation—declamation focused on delivery of the speech. For this event, we have modified the idea of declamation as a limited preparation event. Similar to the model of an extemp round, speakers will enter a common prep room to await their prompt. When their speaker number is drawn, the student will be given three speech transcripts to choose from. These transcripts will be available in a speechdrop.net room and the student will be given the code at draw time. Students will also have access to one printed copy of their transcript if they want it.The students will then have 30 minutes to select their speech, cut/edit, and practice the speech. Before the end of their 30 minute prep time, the student should go to their competition room and deliver a five minute speech (walking time is part of prep time). This five minute cutting should adhere to the original manuscript much in the way an interp cutting would. The student does not need to rewrite or paraphrase the speech.
Judges should evaluate the declamation speech based on delivery and effectiveness of the cutting.
Awards:
We will have awards for all participants in elimination rounds. In debate, we will also recognize the top 5 speakers in each division.
Sweepstakes
The Hornet Cup is a sweepstakes award recognizing the top team based on the results of the top 3 participants from each team (.5 points for each debate prelim win, 1 point for first elim win, 2 points for subsequent elim wins. IE’s will count 2 points for 1st, 1 point for 2nd, .5 point for 3rd, and .25 points final round participants outside of the top 3)
Sacramento State debaters will compete but will NOT be eligible for sweepstakes awards.
Hospitality
Our campus will be on Spring Break, so there may be limited options for food/coffee/etc... available on campus. However, there are numerous excellent places to visit for food near campus that you can go to or have delivered.
There are also some very interesting historical sites that you may want to take your team to, particularly if you have never been here. If you are traveling from outside the region, please don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss any help you need to make the trip easier.
We have provided a list of food options and suggestions, but we are still working on updating this information. It should be ready for you when you arrive for the tournament.
There are also some very interesting historical sites that you may want to take your team to, particularly if you have never been here. If you are traveling from outside the region, please don’t hesitate to contact us to discuss any help you need to make the trip easier.
We have provided a list of food options and suggestions, but we are still working on updating this information. It should be ready for you when you arrive for the tournament.