Hundreds of such tournaments are held at high schools throughout the US each weekend during the debate season.
Tournaments at the high school level often include individual, or speech events, in addition to debate.
Major national circuit tournaments include the Glenbrooks at Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South High Schools in the North Shore area of Chicago, the Barkley Forum for High Schools at Emory University, the Greenhill Fall Classic at Greenhill in Texas, the Berkeley Invitational at Berkeley in Northern California, and the St. Mark's Heart of Texas Invitational at St. Mark's School of Texas in Dallas, however there are seven major tournaments and about forty smaller national circuit tournaments.
Colleges and university with policy debate programs at the collegiate level also often host tournaments for this circuit.
Inter-Collegiate policy debate has a scheduled list of tournaments through the season at both a regional and national scale.
The season spans from September to the end of March and at times into the beginning of April.
The first two days of competition are when the preliminary rounds occur, possibly beginning the first out-round the second night.
CSTV a college sports network makes a documentary of the NDTs every year and showcases the top teams and some of the highlights from the tournament.