Dance Marathon Celebrates College Colors Day
As college football season is here once again, Miracle Network Dance Marathon is celebrating College Colors Day by celebrating the over 300 colleges and universities that are a part of the movement benefitting their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals.
While the colleges and universities that host Dance Marathon fundraisers will be competing on the football field this season, these campuses are united together by the fact that they are this generation, fighting for the next and fundraising for pediatric patients at children’s hospitals in their communities.
During the 2017-2018 academic year, 400 collegiate and K-12 campuses raised $39 million through Miracle Network Dance Marathons.
While their teams will be competing for the national championship trophies, we’ve ranked the athletic conferences by their fundraising and participation in Miracle Network Dance Marathon. While Miracle Network Dance Marathon has programs on campuses in 79 different athletic conferences, we’re recognizing the top 20.
Read more below to see how your conference ranks among the nation’s best!
Schools were categorized by conference that they are primarily affiliated for all NCAA sports, which may not reflect the conference they compete in for football or associate conference memberships.
Say what you want about “power conferences” and the College Football Playoff system, in the Miracle Network Dance Marathon world, it’s clear that the Big 10 takes home the trophy, having raised over $11.7 million during the 2017-2018 school year. This total represents an increase of over $370,000 over the BIG 10’s fundraising total from the previous year.
Indiana University Dance Marathon once again broke their record as the highest fundraising Miracle Network Dance Marathon program, raising over $4.2 million last year. The University of Iowa Dance Marathon also hit a significant milestone, increasing their fundraising from the previous year by over $430,000 to raise over $3 million in 2018. In fact, the Big 10 Conference has four of the top 10 fundraising Miracle Network Dance Marathon programs in the nation, with IU (1), Iowa (3), The Ohio State University (5), and Purdue University (8) making the list.
The SEC, which collectively raised over $7.7 million last year, was also represented in the top 10 fundraising programs with University of Florida (2), University of Georgia (7), and University of South Carolina (9) making the list. USC earned the “Extra Comma Club Award” after raising over $1 million for the first time in their history at their 2018 event.
The highest fundraising individual Dance Marathon’s from each of the top 20 fundraising conferences include:
ACC: Florida State University ($2,152,383)
American: University of Central Florida ($1,584,698)
American Rivers: Loras College ($216,180)
Atlantic 10: Saint Louis University ($255,386)
Atlantic Sun: Kennesaw State University ($330,541)
Big 10: Indiana University ($4,203,326)
Big 12: University of Oklahoma ($1,004,970)
Big East: Butler University ($301,756)
CAA: Elon University ($452,964)
CCAA: St. Ambrose University ($251,034)
Conference USA: Florida Atlantic University ($244,654)
Horizon League: Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) ($501,371)
MAAC: Quinnipiac University ($265,431)
MIAC: Hope College ($311,442)
MAC: Ball State University ($653,011)
Missouri Valley: University of Northern Iowa ($550,713)
Mountain West: San Diego State University ($243,206)
Peach Belt: Georgia College ($250,373)
SEC: University of Florida ($3,026,420)
Summit League: University of South Dakota ($184,239)
The Big 12 Conference became the first conference to have 100% of their member institutions hosting a Miracle Network Dance Marathon program this past year when Kansas State University hosted their inaugural event.
Outside of the Division I conferences, the Colonial Athletic Association is well-represented at number three, with eight out of ten campuses hosting Miracle Network Dance Marathon events and collectively raising over $970,000. The University of Rhode Island hosted their inaugural Dance Marathon in 2018 and broke the Miracle Network Dance Marathon fundraising record for first-year programs.
Miracle Network Dance Marathon is an international movement, involving over 400 colleges, universities and K-12 schools across North America that fundraise for their local Children’s Miracle Network Hospitals. Since its inception in 1991, Miracle Network Dance Marathon has raised more than $250 million–ensuring that no child or family fights pediatric illness or injury alone.
Learn more about Miracle Network Dance Marathon: