EAST LANSING, Mich. – For the second time in three years, a team from Michigan State University has been crowned national debate champions.

MSU’s top two-person debate team of Ryan Burke and Casey Harrigan won the 60th annual National Debate Tournament. The event was hosted this year by Northwestern University, and the final 6-1 decision over Wake Forest came in around 1:30 a.m. Central time Tuesday. 

Both students are senior international relations majors in MSU’s James Madison College. Burke is from Bloomfield Hills, Mich., and Harrigan is from Holland, Mich.

“The quality of schools in the quarterfinals was really high, including Emory, Harvard, Northwestern, UC-Berkeley, Dartmouth and Wake Forest,” said coach Will Repko. “Ryan and Casey finished the season-ending rankings third behind Berkeley, so it was really difficult to face them in the quarters.”

The topic all teams debated was whether the United States should apply economic pressure on China over political and human rights issues.

Burke and Harrigan were undefeated through the preliminaries, so advanced as the number 1 seed. The MSU team had previously defeated a team from Berkeley in the quarterfinals and one from Wayne State in the semifinals. 

Two additional, younger teams from MSU also qualified for the tournament, but did not advance out of the preliminaries. Having three teams entered was a rarity in itself since only 78 teams from across the country can compete.

“First place at the NDT is the ultimate prize of intercollegiate debate, so to have two champions in three years is quite a remarkable record for our program,” said Ron Fisher, dean of the Honors College where the debate program is housed. 

“Very few public universities have won the national championship. The financial and recruiting resources at the private universities tend to be greater, plus there is a history there,” said Repko. “Debate started at the Ivy League institutions, so they have a long track record, but we’re building our own tradition of success at MSU.”

The MSU Debate Program is led by director Mike Eber and head coach Will Repko. Additional coaches are Joshua Gonzalez and MSU’s 2004 national champion David Strauss.

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