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
VALKYRIES 25 11 2971 2758  0.059 18.239    2  0.459    2  0.446    2  0.446    2 0.5494   15  3.520   11 -0.308    1  1.200
MYSTICS   21 15 2952 2976  0.012 18.456    8  0.188    7  0.193    8  0.020    7 0.5213   14  3.549   14 -0.613    2  0.653
LYNX      31  7 3505 3168 -0.013 18.029    1  0.672    1  0.667    1  0.554    1 0.5716    6  3.727    2  0.695    3  0.414
DREAM     23 13 3283 3086  0.025 17.857    5  0.324    5  0.300    4  0.378    5 0.5329    7  3.726    3  0.516    4  0.239
WINGS     21 16 3275 3195  0.083 19.506    6  0.220    6  0.204    6  0.158    6 0.5235   10  3.695    6  0.154    5  0.161
ACES      25 14 3528 3403  0.060 20.141    3  0.357    3  0.348    5  0.252    3 0.5390    4  3.737    4  0.439    6  0.065
LIBERTY   23 15 3432 3312 -0.047 18.162    7  0.190    8  0.175    7  0.152    8 0.5203    5  3.730    5  0.309    7 -0.005
MERCURY   13 23 3020 3148 -0.033 18.227   11 -0.314   11 -0.318   11 -0.289   11 0.4648   12  3.657   12 -0.461    8 -0.117
SUN        9 26 2777 3056 -0.058 17.766   14 -0.548   14 -0.552   15 -0.551   14 0.4400   13  3.610   15 -0.927    9 -0.174
FEVER     24 13 3554 3348  0.013 18.227    4  0.335    4  0.311    3  0.388    4 0.5336    1  3.818    1  0.953   10 -0.178
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
STORM      7 30 3080 3268 -0.046 18.742   15 -0.683   15 -0.726   12 -0.343   15 0.4251   11  3.668   13 -0.465   11 -0.221
SKY       15 22 3230 3302 -0.025 18.654    9 -0.204   10 -0.213    9 -0.136    9 0.4758    8  3.719    7 -0.033   12 -0.239
FIRE      15 21 3115 3272 -0.060 17.932   10 -0.218    9 -0.210   10 -0.279   10 0.4756    9  3.706   10 -0.234   13 -0.324
SPARKS    12 24 3168 3370 -0.022 18.576   12 -0.360   12 -0.354   13 -0.404   12 0.4608    3  3.774    9 -0.046   14 -0.763
TEMPO     11 25 3151 3379 -0.004 18.909   13 -0.418   13 -0.419   14 -0.455   13 0.4574    2  3.787    8 -0.038   15 -0.872

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
VALKYRIES 25 11 2971 2758  0.059 18.239    2  0.459    2  0.446    2  0.446    2 0.5494   15  3.520   11 -0.308    1  1.200
LYNX      31  7 3505 3168 -0.013 18.029    1  0.672    1  0.667    1  0.554    1 0.5716    6  3.727    2  0.695    3  0.414
WINGS     21 16 3275 3195  0.083 19.506    6  0.220    6  0.204    6  0.158    6 0.5235   10  3.695    6  0.154    5  0.161
ACES      25 14 3528 3403  0.060 20.141    3  0.357    3  0.348    5  0.252    3 0.5390    4  3.737    4  0.439    6  0.065
MERCURY   13 23 3020 3148 -0.033 18.227   11 -0.314   11 -0.318   11 -0.289   11 0.4648   12  3.657   12 -0.461    8 -0.117
STORM      7 30 3080 3268 -0.046 18.742   15 -0.683   15 -0.726   12 -0.343   15 0.4251   11  3.668   13 -0.465   11 -0.221
FIRE      15 21 3115 3272 -0.060 17.932   10 -0.218    9 -0.210   10 -0.279   10 0.4756    9  3.706   10 -0.234   13 -0.324
SPARKS    12 24 3168 3370 -0.022 18.576   12 -0.360   12 -0.354   13 -0.404   12 0.4608    3  3.774    9 -0.046   14 -0.763

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
MYSTICS   21 15 2952 2976  0.012 18.456    8  0.188    7  0.193    8  0.020    7 0.5213   14  3.549   14 -0.613    2  0.653
DREAM     23 13 3283 3086  0.025 17.857    5  0.324    5  0.300    4  0.378    5 0.5329    7  3.726    3  0.516    4  0.239
LIBERTY   23 15 3432 3312 -0.047 18.162    7  0.190    8  0.175    7  0.152    8 0.5203    5  3.730    5  0.309    7 -0.005
SUN        9 26 2777 3056 -0.058 17.766   14 -0.548   14 -0.552   15 -0.551   14 0.4400   13  3.610   15 -0.927    9 -0.174
FEVER     24 13 3554 3348  0.013 18.227    4  0.335    4  0.311    3  0.388    4 0.5336    1  3.818    1  0.953   10 -0.178
SKY       15 22 3230 3302 -0.025 18.654    9 -0.204   10 -0.213    9 -0.136    9 0.4758    8  3.719    7 -0.033   12 -0.239
TEMPO     11 25 3151 3379 -0.004 18.909   13 -0.418   13 -0.419   14 -0.455   13 0.4574    2  3.787    8 -0.038   15 -0.872

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 149 146 0.505    1  0.023
EASTERN CONFERENCE 126 129 0.494    2 -0.047

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

Predict score:








Team Strength vs. Time Plot:






posted: Sat Aug 22 05:30:13 2026
games through: Fri Aug 21 2026

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