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      35 11 3947 3519  0.024 21.475    1  0.626    1  0.617    1  0.711    1 0.5599    8  3.619    1  0.658    1  0.764
DREAM     31 15 3852 3523 -0.003 21.075    3  0.386    3  0.375    2  0.563    3 0.5362   11  3.594    3  0.403    2  0.723
VALKYRIES 23 22 3492 3460  0.037 22.376    8  0.050    8  0.051    7  0.093    8 0.5046   13  3.518   10 -0.384    3  0.571
ACES      31 15 3865 3715  0.008 21.979    2  0.408    2  0.417    3  0.383    2 0.5393    3  3.659    2  0.502    4  0.264
FEVER     26 21 3953 3785  0.016 22.423    6  0.131    6  0.122    4  0.272    6 0.5109    5  3.651    5  0.358    5  0.187
MERCURY   27 18 3712 3601  0.025 21.898    5  0.238    5  0.242    6  0.137    5 0.5237    6  3.623    7  0.102    6  0.172
STORM     24 22 3777 3709  0.030 22.671    7  0.073    7  0.073    8  0.074    7 0.5070    7  3.620    8  0.024    7  0.124
LIBERTY   28 17 3789 3603  0.028 21.622    4  0.286    4  0.283    5  0.213    4 0.5282    4  3.653    6  0.308    8  0.118
MYSTICS   16 28 3394 3589 -0.029 21.890   10 -0.322   10 -0.316   11 -0.461   10 0.4674   12  3.576   11 -0.701    9 -0.222
SUN       11 33 3337 3782 -0.021 22.782   11 -0.584   11 -0.575   12 -0.661   11 0.4423   10  3.614   12 -0.736   10 -0.585
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 -0.017 22.893   13 -0.641   13 -0.645   13 -0.749   13 0.4373    9  3.617   13 -0.811   11 -0.687
SPARKS    21 23 3769 3882  0.010 22.069    9 -0.052    9 -0.035    9 -0.186    9 0.4952    1  3.754    4  0.363   12 -0.734
WINGS     10 34 3594 3871  0.023 22.860   12 -0.598   12 -0.618   10 -0.454   12 0.4394    2  3.713    9 -0.093   13 -0.814

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      35 11 3947 3519  0.024 21.475    1  0.626    1  0.617    1  0.711    1 0.5599    8  3.619    1  0.658    1  0.764
VALKYRIES 23 22 3492 3460  0.037 22.376    8  0.050    8  0.051    7  0.093    8 0.5046   13  3.518   10 -0.384    3  0.571
ACES      31 15 3865 3715  0.008 21.979    2  0.408    2  0.417    3  0.383    2 0.5393    3  3.659    2  0.502    4  0.264
MERCURY   27 18 3712 3601  0.025 21.898    5  0.238    5  0.242    6  0.137    5 0.5237    6  3.623    7  0.102    6  0.172
STORM     24 22 3777 3709  0.030 22.671    7  0.073    7  0.073    8  0.074    7 0.5070    7  3.620    8  0.024    7  0.124
SPARKS    21 23 3769 3882  0.010 22.069    9 -0.052    9 -0.035    9 -0.186    9 0.4952    1  3.754    4  0.363   12 -0.734
WINGS     10 34 3594 3871  0.023 22.860   12 -0.598   12 -0.618   10 -0.454   12 0.4394    2  3.713    9 -0.093   13 -0.814

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 15 3852 3523 -0.003 21.075    3  0.386    3  0.375    2  0.563    3 0.5362   11  3.594    3  0.403    2  0.723
FEVER     26 21 3953 3785  0.016 22.423    6  0.131    6  0.122    4  0.272    6 0.5109    5  3.651    5  0.358    5  0.187
LIBERTY   28 17 3789 3603  0.028 21.622    4  0.286    4  0.283    5  0.213    4 0.5282    4  3.653    6  0.308    8  0.118
MYSTICS   16 28 3394 3589 -0.029 21.890   10 -0.322   10 -0.316   11 -0.461   10 0.4674   12  3.576   11 -0.701    9 -0.222
SUN       11 33 3337 3782 -0.021 22.782   11 -0.584   11 -0.575   12 -0.661   11 0.4423   10  3.614   12 -0.736   10 -0.585
SKY       10 34 3335 3777 -0.017 22.893   13 -0.641   13 -0.645   13 -0.749   13 0.4373    9  3.617   13 -0.811   11 -0.687

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 171 145 0.541    1  0.117
EASTERN CONFERENCE 122 148 0.452    2 -0.146

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: Wed Sep 17 08:07:05 2025
games through: Tue Sep 16 2025

Back to Dolphin rankings main page.