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      37 14 4344 3921  0.038 24.361    1  0.574    1  0.546    1  0.606    1 0.5523    8  3.616    2  0.536    1  0.676
DREAM     31 16 3937 3610 -0.012 21.509    3  0.355    3  0.332    2  0.520    3 0.5314   11  3.598    3  0.373    2  0.667
VALKYRIES 23 23 3566 3535  0.042 23.005    8  0.033    8  0.026    7  0.093    8 0.5010   13  3.518   10 -0.388    3  0.574
ACES      39 17 4743 4543  0.048 27.673    2  0.513    2  0.511    3  0.448    2 0.5465    3  3.666    1  0.598    4  0.298
MERCURY   32 23 4543 4423  0.100 28.372    4  0.279    4  0.271    5  0.221    4 0.5254    6  3.626    6  0.195    5  0.248
STORM     24 23 3850 3783  0.033 23.279    7  0.055    7  0.048    8  0.069    7 0.5038    9  3.615    8 -0.003    6  0.142
FEVER     29 24 4457 4307  0.044 26.095    6  0.151    6  0.138    4  0.225    6 0.5124    4  3.653    5  0.319    7  0.131
LIBERTY   28 19 3922 3768  0.025 22.805    5  0.234    5  0.224    6  0.113    5 0.5213    5  3.645    7  0.173    8  0.053
MYSTICS   16 28 3394 3589 -0.039 21.785   10 -0.323   10 -0.325   11 -0.457   10 0.4655   12  3.576   11 -0.697    9 -0.218
SUN       11 33 3337 3782 -0.030 22.665   11 -0.582   11 -0.584   12 -0.651   11 0.4404   10  3.614   12 -0.727   10 -0.575
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
SKY       10 34 3335 3777 -0.027 22.746   13 -0.641   13 -0.657   13 -0.736   13 0.4353    7  3.617   13 -0.798   11 -0.673
SPARKS    21 23 3769 3882  0.003 21.995    9 -0.054    9 -0.043    9 -0.189    9 0.4935    1  3.754    4  0.359   12 -0.737
WINGS     10 34 3594 3871  0.016 22.783   12 -0.593   12 -0.625   10 -0.448   12 0.4376    2  3.713    9 -0.088   13 -0.807

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      37 14 4344 3921  0.038 24.361    1  0.574    1  0.546    1  0.606    1 0.5523    8  3.616    2  0.536    1  0.676
VALKYRIES 23 23 3566 3535  0.042 23.005    8  0.033    8  0.026    7  0.093    8 0.5010   13  3.518   10 -0.388    3  0.574
ACES      39 17 4743 4543  0.048 27.673    2  0.513    2  0.511    3  0.448    2 0.5465    3  3.666    1  0.598    4  0.298
MERCURY   32 23 4543 4423  0.100 28.372    4  0.279    4  0.271    5  0.221    4 0.5254    6  3.626    6  0.195    5  0.248
STORM     24 23 3850 3783  0.033 23.279    7  0.055    7  0.048    8  0.069    7 0.5038    9  3.615    8 -0.003    6  0.142
SPARKS    21 23 3769 3882  0.003 21.995    9 -0.054    9 -0.043    9 -0.189    9 0.4935    1  3.754    4  0.359   12 -0.737
WINGS     10 34 3594 3871  0.016 22.783   12 -0.593   12 -0.625   10 -0.448   12 0.4376    2  3.713    9 -0.088   13 -0.807

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
DREAM     31 16 3937 3610 -0.012 21.509    3  0.355    3  0.332    2  0.520    3 0.5314   11  3.598    3  0.373    2  0.667
FEVER     29 24 4457 4307  0.044 26.095    6  0.151    6  0.138    4  0.225    6 0.5124    4  3.653    5  0.319    7  0.131
LIBERTY   28 19 3922 3768  0.025 22.805    5  0.234    5  0.224    6  0.113    5 0.5213    5  3.645    7  0.173    8  0.053
MYSTICS   16 28 3394 3589 -0.039 21.785   10 -0.323   10 -0.325   11 -0.457   10 0.4655   12  3.576   11 -0.697    9 -0.218
SUN       11 33 3337 3782 -0.030 22.665   11 -0.582   11 -0.584   12 -0.651   11 0.4404   10  3.614   12 -0.727   10 -0.575
SKY       10 34 3335 3777 -0.027 22.746   13 -0.641   13 -0.657   13 -0.736   13 0.4353    7  3.617   13 -0.798   11 -0.673

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 186 157 0.542    1  0.124
EASTERN CONFERENCE 125 154 0.448    2 -0.177

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: Sun Oct 12 21:48:14 2025
games through: Fri Oct 10 2025

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