The Top Collegiate Debaters in the Land
By Jim Willis on May 16, 2008 in Education, Memories | Printable Version
One of the most underrated collegiate “sports” is debating. It is athletics of the mind. Many years ago for a brief period I participated in my college’s debate team. Debating teaches you to think fast, analyze the opposing viewpoint, and put yourself in the other guy’s shoes. It should be a required part of every college’s curriculum–in my humble opinion.
Oh, the name of the college I attended? It was a little NCAA Division 2 southern school called Liberty University. Today, it’s a big NCAA Division 1 school, and the debate team from Liberty has been number one–first!–in overall standings in the National Debate Tournament for the years 2005, 2006 and 2007. They beat out all other universities in the U.S., including Harvard, Yale and over 200 other schools.
This year Liberty was number two. And who, you may ask, was number one? Binghamton University! Hey, if anyone is going to beat out Liberty, BU is a good choice in my book. A hearty congrats to the team at BU for a job very well done. You can read about it here: BU honors its top-ranked, 22-member debate team.
Now, if we could only get our area high schools to start up a local debate tournament…
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