Founded in 1971 as the Southwest Cross Examination Debate Association, CEDA is now the primary national association promoting policy topic intercollegiate academic debate. In cooperation with the National Debate Tournament Committee and the American Debate Association, CEDA formulates the annual intercollegiate policy debate topic used in tournament competition throughout the nation.
CEDA acts as a tournament sanctioning agent, providing through its Constitution and By-Laws a framework for normalizing tournament practices and procedures. Throughout the tournament season, CEDA calculates the National Sweepstakes Standings, the national and regional rankings of member institutions based on compiled tournament results.
The association also hosts an annual National Championship Tournament that brings together over 200 individual debate teams from across the nation to compete for a national team championship.
One of CEDA’s most important functions is to serve as a professional association for scholars and teachers in the field of applied argumentation and debate. In addition to sponsoring scholarly programs on issues of interest to association members at the annual convention of the National Communication Association, CEDA has organized two indigenous scholarly assessment conferences: The 1991 St. Paul 20th Anniversary Assessment Conference, and the 2001 Tahoe Conference on Academic Debate. CEDA also publishes Contemporary Argumentation and Debate: The Journal of the Cross Examination Debate Association, a refereed scholarly journal that serves as the primary outlet for monographs and essays addressing issues related to the theory and practice of academic debate.
The 2025 CEDA Nationals tournament will be hosted by Rutgers University – Newark. Competition will feature eight preliminary rounds, followed by a varsity elimination bracket that clears the top half of competition and a novice break-out elimination bracket including the top eight performing novice teams. Join us at the Rutgers Newark campus for the 2025 season CEDA Nationals tournament!
About CEDA, Membership information, CEDA National Tournament
Information on the upcoming and past CEDA National Tournaments
Press Inquiries, Membership Inquiries, Questions and information
Click the button below to view our champion list
Have questions? Feel free to reach out by clicking the button below and a member of our team will get back to you in the next 24 – 48 hours to answer any questions you might have.
President
Phil Samuels, Wichita State University
1st Vice President
Deven Cooper, California State University - Long Beach
2nd President
Rob Glass, University of Houston
Treasurer
Joe Patrice, Army
Executive Secretary
Jackie Poapst, George Mason University
Immediate Past President
Devane Murphey, University of Kentucky
Past President
Brendon Bankey, University of Texas-Austin
Recording Secretary
Vacant
East Central
Carly Watson, Michigan State University
Southeast Region
Mikaela Malsin, Emory
Mid America Region
Eric Morris, Missouri State University
West Region
Lauren Johnson, Weber
Mid Atlantic Region
Danielle Verney-O’Gorman, United States Naval Academy
Northeast Region
Katherine Rubino, US Military Academy
North Central Region
David Cram Helwich, University of Minnesota
Pacific Region
Ryan Wash, Southwestern
South Central Region
Kristiana Baez, Baylor
Click the button below to view the Cross Examination Debate Association Constitution and By-Laws.
Founded in 1971 as the Southwest Cross Examination Debate Association, CEDA is now the primary national association promoting intercollegiate policy debate.
