Author: Matt Liu, University of Wyoming Director of Debate
Quickdraw posts are snapshot reflections that are usually spurred by experiences the WDR staff have while judging at Wyoming tournaments. This quickdraw is about NSDA points. Hot take: the world would be a better place without NSDA points. At the last tournament I attended, I noticed two related phenomena that trouble me: debaters measuring their own self-worth through NSDA points, and debaters measuring their opponent's talent through NSDA points. I heard one debater say they were worried because they were going to debate "the top team in Colorado." This statement mystified me. Top team according to who? I honestly don't believe that we have a metric to determine this. Were they last year's state champion, I wondered? Nope -- it was NSDA points. I've heard other debaters either boasting about their NSDA points in an event or worried that their NSDA points reflected poorly on them. I don't like any of this. First, I don't think NSDA points come anywhere close to measuring the quality of a debater (or even an interper or platformer). NSDA points prioritize quantity of competition over quality and they quite simply can't capture the data inputs that really measure a competitor's strength. I think we should be very careful when it comes to ranking students and nothing leads me to believe that NSDA points are an appropriate way to do that. Second, I don't like either the trepidation or the overconfidence that brooding over NSDA points produces. I don't want any debater to get in their own head because they're worried about their opponent's NSDA points. I have been doing this activity for over 20 years, and I have never spent a single second of my life worrying about my debater's NSDA points. I have never once thought that one of my teams might be in trouble because their opponents have a lot of NSDA points. I encourage you to adopt the same mentality. You will be better off and more successful for it. Bonus hot take: sweepstakes points are also sus. I worry they encourage thinking about what is best for the school instead of what is best for individual competitors.
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