NFA Qualification Procedures

QUALIFICATION PROCEDURES FOR NFA Nationals

  • 1. A student qualifies for any of the events by being in a “final” round, or in the top 10% of that event, at a tournament that had at least 7 schools participating. The tournament must hold at least two preliminary rounds. In order to qualify, students must participate in all preliminary and elimination rounds conducted at a given tournament. If an event has fewer than twelve Contestants, 50% of the contestants qualify if they compete in a final round.
  • 2. In the case of state championships and similar events that arbitrarily limit entries, the “Rule of 7″ may be waived by the NFA Executive Council. Application for waivers must be made in writing to Brendan Kelly.
  • 3. Contestants may not have received a Bachelor’s degree or its equivalent, except that students who graduate during the 2010-2011 academic year may compete in those events in which they qualified between September, 2010 and their date of graduation. Contestants must have been enrolled at the institution they represent in more than a course in forensics during the academic year.
  • 4. Tournaments held after March 27, 2011 will not be recognized as qualifying contests.
  • 5. Contestants may use programs or speeches that are different front those they qualified with at the National Tournament. Contestants may not switch programs or speeches during the National Tournament.
  • 6. A student may enter up to two slots of Dramatic Duo if she/he has qualified with different partners. In no case may duo partners be substituted, nor may 2 students who have qualified with other partners combine to form a new partnership.
  • 7. A student may enter as many events as they have qualified. The student’s best five will count toward pentathlon points. This rule in no way affects the application of sweepstakes points toward a school’s total if the student is one of the top three in any event from that school.
  • 8. Lincoln-Douglas debaters may enter all I.E. events for which they have qualified. L-D debaters must have qualified at a tournament using the NFA L-D topic.
  • 9. Novice events qualify IF THEY ARE CONDUCTED AS SEPARATE EVENTS – with separate preliminary and final rounds – from open and/or varsity events. Verification of novice events is contingent upon ability to prove the students competed in separately scheduled preliminary rounds. Sending copies of the tournament schematic will aid the National Tournament Director in verification.
  • 10. For the 2010-2011 National Individual Events Tournament, only those events offered at the National Tournament will be considered qualifying events. The lone exception to this rule is that Communication Analysis will qualify for Rhetorical Criticism. If you are unsure of the legitimacy of a specific event from a specific tournament, or have other questions concerning qualifications, please contact the National Tournament Director.
  • 11. All students, judges, and coaches participating in the tournament are subject to the NFA rules and Code of Ethics.
  • 12. Please return results for all tournaments and verification of qualification to Dr. Brendan Kelly. Dr. Kelly prefers that you call or e-mail first to see if he already has the tournament information; if not, then please send a copy of all of the teams as well as the results for each event. Tournaments will be verified until Monday, March 29. You may call Dr. Kelly for verification updates. All verification and entries should be sent to:

Dr. Brendan Kelly – email: Dr. Brendan Kelly. Fax: 850.474.3153
Postal address:
Dr. Brendan B. Kelly
Department of Communication Arts
University of West Florida
11000 University Parkway
36/178
Pensacola, FL 32514