National Debate Rankings

In 1995 Mike Bietz suggested a national ranking system of LD debaters on the original LD-L Listserv. This was met by a great deal of resistance and even a threat of lawsuits if certain schools showed up on the ranking system. Alas, the idea was put to rest.

In 2003 Jeb Puryear brought back the idea when he launched The National Debate Rankings. With multiple tweakings to the system, the NDR now uses the ELO system used by chess players to their rankings. You can read more about the rankings at: The NDR Explained.

The NDR is now:
Jeb Puryear: jeb@nationaldebaterankings.net
Vineet Singal (intern): vineet@nationaldebaterankings.net

The NDR is hosted by Victory Briefs, LLC.

We are looking for results from all seasons from the last 5 years!  Please submit them if you have them!

For the NDR to work, we need people to submit results.

** PLEASE NOTE** we will only enter results for tournaments that meet the following:

1. Are submitted as a complete tournament packet.  We cannot just do pages that have, for example, your team on them.

2. TRPC or similar tab programs are the preferred method.

3. The results sheet must show both the debater AND the opponent in the same cell.  We cannot piece together tournaments.

Please submit results by Fax or by Email (in a PDF)

Fax number for the NDR:  (866) 612-3691

Or email to: results@nationaldebaterankings.net 

The new NDR system for 07-08 will be, at its core, based on the ELO rating system (similar to the system used for rating chess players). Debaters will see individual ratings move up and down based on final placement at tournaments. The bigger the tournament (the higher the ratings of debaters at the tournament) the more a debater can move up or down. Essentially if someone outperforms expectations based on their previous tournament success they will go up, if they underperform they will move down. Expected finish will be based on the debaters latest rating to give the most up to date probability (based on the idea that debaters will often get on a hot/cold streak), but the overall ranking will be based on an average of ratings over time (last X number of tournaments) to give a broader picture of debater performance. Additionally the system will carry over from season to season.

The most exciting facet of the new system is since it only weights tournaments based on the strength of the field, ANY tournament could be included to provide a deeper view of debater success. This could include state tournaments, larger regional tournaments, round robins, or even NFL or NCFL as long as an overall order of finish could be discerned. The system should be able to provide a much better picture of how younger and local talents are doing in the grand scheme of things. The biggest goal of the new NDR is to include results from any tournament we can get our hands on without regard for the prestige of the tournament because we believe tournament importance should be based on the strength of field that show up at a tournament when it happens not on a designation from on high made in the middle of the summer.

*An “expected” percentile is statisically calculated based on the ratings that each debater at the tournament had going into the event (all new debaters start with a rating of 1000, people who have previously been to a tournament have their last rating used)

*All the debaters at a tournament are ranked and given a percentile reflecting how they finished

*If you do better than expected your rating goes up, if you do worse it goes down

*The maximum amount a person can move up or down depends on the size/strength of the tournament fields (which is also tied into the initial ratings)

National Debate Rankings 2004-2005 LD - SQUADS
Rk    School Code (Name)    ST    Rating
1    OHSODEF         CA    5796
2    Scarsdale         NY    5789
3    Lynbrook         CA    5787
4    Highland Park         MN    5624
5    Hockaday         TX    5605
6    Valley             IA    5576
7    Edina            MN    5574
8    Schreiber         NY    5513
9    Trinity Prep         FL    5381
10    Bishop Guertin         NH    5364
11    Ridge             NJ    5341
12    Randolph         NJ    5229
13    Hendrick Hudson        NY    5178
14    Manchester Essex     MA    5141
15    Celebration        FL    5100
16    Archer            CA    5067
17    Lake Highland         FL    5027
18    Regis             NY    5024
19    James Logan         CA    4986
20    Pine Crest        FL    4895
21    Monticello         NY    4879
22    Meadows         NV    4875
23    San Marino         CA    4778
24    Grapevine         TX    4755
25    S.F. Austin        TX    4741

Here is the ranking for the final NDR for 2004-2005 season.

Individual Debaters
1 Greenhill DW (David Wolfish) TX Sr 1261
2 Scarsdale MSh (Matt Shields) NY Jr 1248
3 Monte Vista-Danville WL (Will Leiter) CA Jr 1229
4 Mountain View PR (Prashant Rai) CA Jr 1216
5 Des Moines North ER (Ernie Rose) IA Sr 1216
6 Schreiber AP (Adwait Parker) NY Sr 1215
7 Palo Alto DS (Daniel Sheehan) CA Sr 1215
8 Lynbrook SS (Shyaam Subramanian) CA Sr 1214
9 Schreiber PG (Petey Gil) NY Sr 1211
10 Jersey Village BC (Bryan Cory) TX Sr 1210
10 Glenbrook North AP (Ari Parker) IL Jr 1210
12 Celebration TT (Tara Tedrow) FL Sr 1210
13 Highland Park NS (Nel Smiley) TX Sr 1208
14 Lynbrook TB (Tripti Bhattacharya) CA Jr 1208
15 Greenhill TV (Tisha Vaidya) TX Sr 1206
16 OHSODEF FT (Fabien Thayamballi) CA Sr 1201
17 Mayde Creek JD (Jeremy Dudley) TX Jr 1200
18 Edina CT (Casey Trombley-Shapiro) MN Sr 1200
19 Niskayuna SB (Scott Brainard) NY Sr 1199
20 La Jolla AS (Alex Smith) CA Sr 1196
21 Strake Jesuit AW (Andy Werner) TX Jr 1195
22 James Logan BZ (Bonan Zhou) CA Jr 1194
23 St James MM (Michael Mangus) AL Jr 1193
24 Highland Park KP (Katie Poulos) MN Jr 1189
25 OHSODEF HJ (Hirsh Jain) CA Sr 1186
26 Des Moines North KL (Kim Larson) IA Jr 1186
27 Marcus MK (Matt Kinskey) TX Sr 1186
28 Mountain View SH (Stephen Hess) CA Jr 1185
29 Harker AH (Alex Hsu) CA Sr 1185
30 Churchill LM (Levi Moreno) TX Sr 1184
31 Hockaday AnM (A.J. Motgi) TX Jr 1181
32 Randolph ML (Matt Levinson) NJ Jr 1176

The whole list can be seen here: 0405FinalNDR

We are in the process of putting together the new National Debate Rankings.  You can read about the formula by clicking on the “about” link on the right.