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      25  7 2956 2673 -0.053 14.675    1  0.534    1  0.520    1  0.473    1 0.5591    7  3.724    2  0.599    3  0.346
VALKYRIES 22  9 2582 2389  0.057 15.615    2  0.464    2  0.454    2  0.462    2 0.5533   15  3.540   10 -0.211    1  1.135
ACES      22 10 2931 2775  0.046 16.172    3  0.415    3  0.405    3  0.367    3 0.5466    5  3.732    3  0.529    4  0.205
DREAM     19 12 2760 2657  0.039 15.725    4  0.256    4  0.247    6  0.181    4 0.5290    8  3.716    5  0.271    6  0.091
WINGS     19 13 2843 2743  0.041 16.269    5  0.219    5  0.213    5  0.189    5 0.5269   10  3.694    6  0.183    5  0.196
FEVER     19 12 2979 2806 -0.000 15.057    6  0.217    7  0.209    4  0.366    6 0.5252    1  3.826    1  0.970   11 -0.239
MYSTICS   18 12 2448 2486  0.002 15.312    7  0.191    6  0.210    8 -0.029    7 0.5244   14  3.545   14 -0.680    2  0.623
LIBERTY   20 13 2976 2886 -0.030 15.976    8  0.186    8  0.180    7  0.122    8 0.5222    4  3.735    4  0.301    8 -0.057
SPARKS    12 18 2687 2818 -0.006 15.510    9 -0.191    9 -0.188   11 -0.255    9 0.4762    3  3.780    7  0.129   14 -0.639
FIRE      12 19 2683 2845 -0.024 15.881   11 -0.235   10 -0.227   12 -0.299   10 0.4731    9  3.710   11 -0.236   13 -0.361
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
SKY       12 19 2737 2788 -0.034 15.443   10 -0.229   11 -0.246    9 -0.115   11 0.4723    6  3.727    8  0.027   12 -0.257
MERCURY   12 21 2766 2878  0.010 17.162   12 -0.266   12 -0.266   10 -0.226   12 0.4671   12  3.649   12 -0.435    7 -0.016
TEMPO     10 21 2709 2905 -0.020 16.049   13 -0.372   13 -0.367   15 -0.469   13 0.4605    2  3.783    9 -0.068   15 -0.870
SUN        8 23 2470 2692 -0.069 15.520   14 -0.530   14 -0.528   14 -0.457   14 0.4390   13  3.613   15 -0.820    9 -0.094
STORM      6 27 2728 2914 -0.017 17.086   15 -0.657   15 -0.687   13 -0.353   15 0.4264   11  3.662   13 -0.503   10 -0.202

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      25  7 2956 2673 -0.053 14.675    1  0.534    1  0.520    1  0.473    1 0.5591    7  3.724    2  0.599    3  0.346
VALKYRIES 22  9 2582 2389  0.057 15.615    2  0.464    2  0.454    2  0.462    2 0.5533   15  3.540   10 -0.211    1  1.135
ACES      22 10 2931 2775  0.046 16.172    3  0.415    3  0.405    3  0.367    3 0.5466    5  3.732    3  0.529    4  0.205
WINGS     19 13 2843 2743  0.041 16.269    5  0.219    5  0.213    5  0.189    5 0.5269   10  3.694    6  0.183    5  0.196
SPARKS    12 18 2687 2818 -0.006 15.510    9 -0.191    9 -0.188   11 -0.255    9 0.4762    3  3.780    7  0.129   14 -0.639
FIRE      12 19 2683 2845 -0.024 15.881   11 -0.235   10 -0.227   12 -0.299   10 0.4731    9  3.710   11 -0.236   13 -0.361
MERCURY   12 21 2766 2878  0.010 17.162   12 -0.266   12 -0.266   10 -0.226   12 0.4671   12  3.649   12 -0.435    7 -0.016
STORM      6 27 2728 2914 -0.017 17.086   15 -0.657   15 -0.687   13 -0.353   15 0.4264   11  3.662   13 -0.503   10 -0.202

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     19 12 2760 2657  0.039 15.725    4  0.256    4  0.247    6  0.181    4 0.5290    8  3.716    5  0.271    6  0.091
FEVER     19 12 2979 2806 -0.000 15.057    6  0.217    7  0.209    4  0.366    6 0.5252    1  3.826    1  0.970   11 -0.239
MYSTICS   18 12 2448 2486  0.002 15.312    7  0.191    6  0.210    8 -0.029    7 0.5244   14  3.545   14 -0.680    2  0.623
LIBERTY   20 13 2976 2886 -0.030 15.976    8  0.186    8  0.180    7  0.122    8 0.5222    4  3.735    4  0.301    8 -0.057
SKY       12 19 2737 2788 -0.034 15.443   10 -0.229   11 -0.246    9 -0.115   11 0.4723    6  3.727    8  0.027   12 -0.257
TEMPO     10 21 2709 2905 -0.020 16.049   13 -0.372   13 -0.367   15 -0.469   13 0.4605    2  3.783    9 -0.068   15 -0.870
SUN        8 23 2470 2692 -0.069 15.520   14 -0.530   14 -0.528   14 -0.457   14 0.4390   13  3.613   15 -0.820    9 -0.094

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 130 124 0.512    1  0.058
EASTERN CONFERENCE 106 112 0.486    2 -0.074

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.339 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  8 05:30:09 2026
games through: Fri Aug  7 2026

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