The Tournament of Champions in Extemporaneous Speaking (Extemp TOC) was first held at the campus of Northwestern University in 2003. In order to qualify, a competitor can advance into the elimination rounds of the previous year's National Forensic League

National Forensic League

The National Forensic League is a non-partisan, non-profit educational honor society established to encourage and motivate American high school students to participate in and become proficient in the forensic arts: debate, public speaking and interpretation. NFL is the America's oldest and largest...

 or National Catholic Forensic League

National Catholic Forensic League

The National Catholic Forensic League is a speech and debate league that was formed in 1951. It is organized into regions which correspond to Roman Catholic dioceses. Member schools include both public and parochial high schools. The CFL recruits member schools in both the United States and Canada...

National Tournament, the elimination rounds of the previous year's TOC, advance into the final round of their State Championship, or advance to the elimination rounds at any of the following tournaments:

• Alief Taylor High School (Texas)
• Apple Valley HS (MN)
• Berkeley (CA)
• Holy Cross College (MA)
• Bradley University (IL)
• California State University - Fullerton
• Columbia University (New York)
• Crestian Classic (FL)
• Dowling (IA)
• Emory University (GA)
• Florida Blue Key
• George Mason University (Virginia)
• Glenbrooks (IL)
• Harvard (MA)
• Illinois State University
• Isadoore Newman (LA)
• James Logan HS (CA)
• Lamar Consolidated (TX)
• Nevada High School (MO)
• Nova High School (FL)
• Pennsbury Falcon Invitational (PA)
• Princeton Classic (NJ)
• St. Mark's/Highland Park (TX)
• Salina HS Central (KS)
• Southwestern Championships, Arizona State University
• Stanford University (CA)
• University of Oregon
• University of Pennsylvania
• University of Southern California
• University of Texas at Austin
• Vestavia Hills Classic (AL)
• Villager (PA)
• Wake Forest University Early-Bird (NC)
• Western Kentucky University
• Whitman College (WA)
• Winston Churchill High School (TX)
• Yale (CT)

Any competitor who doesn't meet any of those requirements can apply for an At-Large Bid.

Past winners

• 2003: Jack Hsiao (Lamar Consolidated High School, Texas)
• 2004: Kevin Troy (Eagan High School, Minnesota)
• 2005: Kevin Troy (Eagan High School, Minnesota)
• 2006: Dan Rauch (Millburn High School, New Jersey)
• 2007: Alex Stephenson (Eagan High School, Minnesota)
• 2008: Reid Bagwell (Scarsdale High School, New York)
• 2009: Stacey Chen (North Allegheny Senior High School, Pennsylvania)
• 2010: Nabeel Zewail (San Marino High School, California)