For a number of years, CEDA employed a two-person team value debate format.

Beginning with the 1996–1997 season, however, CEDA has employed a single, year-long policy debate topic.

[3][4] CEDA President Paul Mabrey points to the value of limited actual formal rules in CEDA debate and the ways that a variety of forms of debate raise the educational value of the activity and call these objections "nothing other than thinly-veiled racism.

"[3] In 2014, despite winning the tournament, the team from Towson University was criticized by observers for referencing racial slurs, failing to adhere to standard debate practices and arguing a topic unrelated to the proposed resolution.

These attacks on Towson, Oklahoma, and others in our debate community are motivated by racism and fear.