The debate team continued its success in the 2008-2009 season, qualifying a team to the National Debate Tournament in Austin, TX, and winning the Vanderbilt debate tournament in October. Junior political science major Logan Gramzinski won the SEC Varsity debater of the year at the district qualifying meet in Atlanta, Georgia, and he and his partner, Dan Bagwell, a freshman this year at Samford, placed 3rd at the SEC district meet to qualify for the National Tournament.
The team showed great success at multiple local, regional, and national tournaments, being ranked 27th in the nation by the Cross-Examination debate association in the spring.
Samford is a leading Christian university offering undergraduate programs grounded in the liberal arts with an array of nationally recognized graduate and professional schools. Founded in 1841, Samford is the 87th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States. Samford enrolls 6,101 students from 45 states, Puerto Rico and 16 countries in its 10 academic schools: arts, arts and sciences, business, divinity, education, health professions, law, nursing, pharmacy and public health. Samford fields 17 athletic teams that compete in the tradition-rich Southern Conference and ranks 6th nationally for its Graduation Success Rate among all NCAA Division I schools.