Gonzaga Hosts National Debate Tournament to Crown National Champs

An illustration of a mountain and river with the words 2025 NDT Gonzaga University
March 26, 2025
Dan Nailen | Marketing & Communications

The nation’s best college debate teams will visit Spokane this spring for the annual National Debate Tournament, a four-day flurry of fast-flying facts and verbal gymnastics that will ultimately crown a national champion on Monday, April 7.

Gonzaga University is hosting this year’s tournament April 3-7, having previously hosted in 2005 and 1985. Seventy-eight two-person debate teams representing 48 colleges and universities will compete. The list of qualified schools includes Harvard, Dartmouth, the University of Michigan, Cal, Northwestern, the University of Texas, USC, and of course, Gonzaga.

Gonzaga attended the first National Debate Tournament, held in 1947 at West Point, and was represented by Gonzaga alumni and former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Tom Foley.

“The National Debate Tournament is the oldest intercollegiate debate championship,” says Tournament Director Gordon Stables, who also serves as director of the School of Journalism at USC.

“A lot has changed in the 79 years since the first NDT, but it has remained a cornerstone of intercollegiate academic competition. Students from a wide range of schools and from all over the country work incredibly hard to compete across an entire academic year. The NDT is a final opportunity for those talented students to compete against their peers."

"In a landscape where there are very few settings for intense but respectful disagreement and debate, the NDT remains a signature opportunity for some of the nation’s most talented students.”

While there are various debate formats, the National Debate Tournament is considered the most challenging due to the intensity of preparation and performance in competition. Debaters tackle one issue each season – this year’s is energy policy – and spend countless hours researching and practicing.

“This is the most intellectually rigorous and challenging debate format in the world,” says Glen Frappier, Gonzaga University director of debate and senior lecturer in communication studies. “It takes an exceptional amount of work and preparation to succeed. You have to have the love, but also the experience, the talent and the work ethic.”

All 78 teams at the National Debate Tournament will compete in eight preliminary debates across three days, and potentially some extra rounds, to determine a “Sweet 16” of sorts. The final 16 teams will compete in “elimination rounds” on Monday, April 7, to crown a national champion.

Each debate lasts roughly two hours, and judges can take nearly another hour to choose the winning team. These are nothing like the political debates one might be familiar with from television, but rather light-speed exchanges of ideas that a casual observer might have trouble even tracking.

Gonzaga will have one two-person team competing in juniors Dash Weinhardt (political science) and Kaelyn Wellman (philosophy), joining the nearly 400 visitors including debaters, coaches, alumni and judges who will be on hand. All events will take place on the Gonzaga campus and at The Centennial Hotel.

“The NDT is incredibly excited to return to Spokane,” Stables says. “Gonzaga University will be one of the very few institutions to host the NDT a third time. GU provides a fantastic setting for us because it combines a university with deep ties to academic debate with a very friendly city. The NDT is a very intensive event and our programs really appreciate how Glen Frappier and his team go out of their way to be such wonderful hosts.”

 

Debate Director Glen Frappier sits behind a laptop computer at his desk
Gonzaga Debate Director Glen Frappier (Photo by Zack Berlat).

In conjunction with the NDT the Gonzaga Debate Team is also hosting an alumni reunion on Saturday, April 5, and are expecting multiple generations of Zag debaters to make the trip back to Spokane for the event.

Among the alumni joining the reunion is D. Michael Reilly (’81), the chair of the Gonzaga Board of Trustees, who attended Gonzaga on a debate scholarship and has fond memories of competing. He and his debate partner Tim Thompson (’81) even went to the National Debate Tournament in 1979, progressing deep in the event before losing to the eventual national champion team from Harvard.

Reilly credits his experience in debate with helping him find his voice and engage in diverse perspectives while pushing him to learn the value of hard work, perseverance, teamwork and resilience. The lifelong friendships and traveling across the country to compete, as well as the intense preparations for debates, stand out as he reflects on his debate career.

 

“Debate taught me the value of civil discourse, being part of our Jesuit mission, and developed my ability to critically analyze, research and evaluate “evidence,” communicate clearly and hear and understand both sides of an argument,” Reilly says. “Debate made me a better student and person, and fostered close lifelong relationships with faculty and other students."

“I so appreciate the extra effort the Gonzaga administration has taken to continue the legacy of Gonzaga Debate. It matches well with the cornerstones of Jesuit education. And seeing how many alums are returning for this reunion, it is clear the experience had a lasting impact.”

Learn about debate at Gonzaga.
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