Dolphin Ratings - Women's National Basketball Association

Explanation: Each team is listed with its record, overall score differential, and its ratings. Brief explanations of the ratings follow.

Schedule The number in this column is the effective opponent strength of a team. In other words, they would be expected to have the same record had they played all games against an opponent of this predictive rating at a neutral site. Because this calculation depends on the strength of the team in question, it is not possible to rank schedules using these values.
Expected Losses For college teams, this number is the number of losses an average ranked (top 15 hockey; otherwise top 25) team would be expected to have against the team's schedule. For pro teams, this is the number of losses an average team would be expected to have against the team's schedule. Unlike the schedule ranking, this value can be used to rank schedules.
Standard Ranks teams in an order such that a team is "probably better" than all teams ranked lower than it. This calculation uses margin of victory only for computing a team's opponents strengths; the team's rating itself is computed using only wins, losses, and ties relative to its schedule
Median Likelihood Determines the likely ratings for each team, based on its wins, losses, and ties relative to its schedule. This generally produces the same or similar ratings as the standard ranking.
Predictive Both schedule strength and rating vs. schedule strength are determined considering both the wins and losses and the score differentials. This rating contains none of the biases in the standard rating, but does weight recent games slightly more than past games since those are a better indication of the team's current strength. This rating is the best of the first three for seeing how good teams are, and thus is the best for predicting future results.
Improved RPI Rating The improved RPI formula is similar to the standard RPI, except that the schedule strength is carried out to infinite depth instead of ending with opponents' opponents, thus allows for a better comparison of isolated groups of teams than is given by the standard RPI calculation. It is similar to the simple rating, except that all games are given equal weight.
Scoring. This value indicates how many points a team would be expected to score if it played an identical team.
Offense. This combines the predictive and scoring ratings to measure how many points a team scores. The number is the predictive rating of an opponent against whom the team would be expected to score the league average number of points. This does not necessarily rate a team's offensive abilities, as a fast pace in basketball or big-play defense in football can make a team score more points.
Defense. This combines the predictive and scoring ratings to measure how many points a team allows. The number is the predictive rating of an opponent against whom the team would be expected to allow the league average number of points. The same caveat in the predictive-offense rating applies here.

In order to increase early-season stability, the three main rankings, the improved RPI, and the college pseudopoll include priors based on the previous season final predictive ratings and occasionally incorporating preseason predictions of various major publications. The other rankings for college sports do not include priors, and thus can be wildly unstable early in the year. A team whose rankings are affected by this prior is noted with a P following its rankings.

Full Ranking

                                          STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
LYNX      24  6 2588 2260 -0.061 13.046    1  0.586    1  0.594    1  0.742    1 0.5636   10  3.596    2  0.572    1  0.911
LIBERTY   18 10 2434 2272  0.035 13.527    2  0.306    2  0.298    3  0.323    2 0.5331    3  3.697    1  0.597    8  0.049
MERCURY   17 11 2334 2265  0.074 14.245    3  0.280    3  0.288    5  0.193    3 0.5283    5  3.648    6  0.251    6  0.135
DREAM     18 11 2452 2291  0.035 13.976    4  0.266    4  0.252    2  0.432    4 0.5263    7  3.633    3  0.425    2  0.440
FEVER     18 12 2541 2402 -0.001 14.160    5  0.202    5  0.193    4  0.302    5 0.5194    6  3.647    4  0.357    5  0.248
STORM     16 13 2358 2280 -0.026 13.743    6  0.080    6  0.078    6  0.104    6 0.5082   12  3.578    9 -0.141    4  0.349
ACES      15 14 2363 2409  0.019 14.700    7  0.044    7  0.065    8 -0.084    7 0.5045    4  3.653    8 -0.006    9 -0.163
VALKYRIES 14 14 2186 2197  0.013 13.979    8 -0.004    8  0.004    7 -0.050    8 0.5006   13  3.540   11 -0.453    3  0.354
MYSTICS   13 15 2206 2260 -0.008 14.021    9 -0.077    9 -0.060   10 -0.161    9 0.4913   11  3.580   10 -0.397    7  0.074
SPARKS    12 15 2308 2377  0.003 13.698   10 -0.116   10 -0.109    9 -0.157   10 0.4901    1  3.740    5  0.311   11 -0.626
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
WINGS      8 21 2380 2510  0.005 14.945   11 -0.457   12 -0.478   11 -0.274   11 0.4494    2  3.701    7  0.018   10 -0.565
SKY        7 21 2138 2436  0.059 15.547   12 -0.485   11 -0.469   12 -0.711   12 0.4473    8  3.629   12 -0.736   13 -0.687
SUN        5 22 2021 2350  0.030 14.639   13 -0.624   13 -0.623   13 -0.714   13 0.4295    9  3.616   13 -0.796   12 -0.632

WESTERN CONFERENCE
                                          STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
LYNX      24  6 2588 2260 -0.061 13.046    1  0.586    1  0.594    1  0.742    1 0.5636   10  3.596    2  0.572    1  0.911
MERCURY   17 11 2334 2265  0.074 14.245    3  0.280    3  0.288    5  0.193    3 0.5283    5  3.648    6  0.251    6  0.135
STORM     16 13 2358 2280 -0.026 13.743    6  0.080    6  0.078    6  0.104    6 0.5082   12  3.578    9 -0.141    4  0.349
ACES      15 14 2363 2409  0.019 14.700    7  0.044    7  0.065    8 -0.084    7 0.5045    4  3.653    8 -0.006    9 -0.163
VALKYRIES 14 14 2186 2197  0.013 13.979    8 -0.004    8  0.004    7 -0.050    8 0.5006   13  3.540   11 -0.453    3  0.354
SPARKS    12 15 2308 2377  0.003 13.698   10 -0.116   10 -0.109    9 -0.157   10 0.4901    1  3.740    5  0.311   11 -0.626
WINGS      8 21 2380 2510  0.005 14.945   11 -0.457   12 -0.478   11 -0.274   11 0.4494    2  3.701    7  0.018   10 -0.565

EASTERN CONFERENCE
                                          STANDARD   MED LIKELY  PREDICTIVE  IMPRVD RPI    SCORING     OFFENSE     DEFENSE 
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
LIBERTY   18 10 2434 2272  0.035 13.527    2  0.306    2  0.298    3  0.323    2 0.5331    3  3.697    1  0.597    8  0.049
DREAM     18 11 2452 2291  0.035 13.976    4  0.266    4  0.252    2  0.432    4 0.5263    7  3.633    3  0.425    2  0.440
FEVER     18 12 2541 2402 -0.001 14.160    5  0.202    5  0.193    4  0.302    5 0.5194    6  3.647    4  0.357    5  0.248
MYSTICS   13 15 2206 2260 -0.008 14.021    9 -0.077    9 -0.060   10 -0.161    9 0.4913   11  3.580   10 -0.397    7  0.074
SKY        7 21 2138 2436  0.059 15.547   12 -0.485   11 -0.469   12 -0.711   12 0.4473    8  3.629   12 -0.736   13 -0.687
SUN        5 22 2021 2350  0.030 14.639   13 -0.624   13 -0.623   13 -0.714   13 0.4295    9  3.616   13 -0.796   12 -0.632

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 106  94 0.530    1  0.078
EASTERN CONFERENCE  79  91 0.465    2 -0.096

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.310 points in main ratings (0.226 for semineutral)
     0.030 points in improved RPI (0.023 for semineutral)
Average of 2.15 points per score

Predict score:








Team Strength vs. Time Plot:






posted: Mon Aug  4 05:30:07 2025
games through: Sun Aug  3 2025

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