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 41 16 4609 4284  0.122 30.167    1  0.651    1  0.616    2  0.514    1 0.5587   15  3.468   13 -0.414    1  1.442
LYNX      33 13 4143 3859  0.030 22.789    2  0.551    2  0.513    5  0.293    2 0.5507    8  3.710    4  0.392    6  0.194
DREAM     38 18 4982 4604  0.095 28.988    3  0.531    3  0.485    1  0.653    3 0.5483   10  3.689    2  0.661    2  0.644
ACES      33 18 4613 4377  0.054 25.978    4  0.420    4  0.383    3  0.380    4 0.5367    6  3.723    3  0.541    4  0.220
FEVER     29 18 4489 4264  0.038 23.660    5  0.332    5  0.289    6  0.289    5 0.5283    1  3.824    1  0.918    9 -0.339
WINGS     28 19 4194 4032  0.024 23.597    6  0.276    6  0.234    7  0.220    6 0.5227    7  3.715    6  0.345    7  0.095
MYSTICS   28 18 3848 3825 -0.036 22.694    7  0.252    7  0.225    8  0.065    7 0.5222   14  3.588   11 -0.370    3  0.500
LIBERTY   29 21 4475 4311  0.048 25.592    8  0.250    8  0.205    4  0.297    8 0.5208    9  3.708    5  0.387    5  0.206
FIRE      17 27 3794 4005 -0.059 22.273    9 -0.269    9 -0.285   11 -0.324    9 0.4701    5  3.724    9 -0.160   12 -0.488
SPARKS    16 28 3830 4018 -0.052 22.271   11 -0.332   10 -0.355   10 -0.281   10 0.4652    3  3.752    7  0.010   13 -0.572
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
MERCURY   16 28 3712 3854 -0.048 22.140   10 -0.329   11 -0.359    9 -0.255   11 0.4652   11  3.675   10 -0.313    8 -0.197
SKY       16 28 3818 3989 -0.065 22.041   12 -0.334   12 -0.359   12 -0.368   12 0.4643    4  3.737    8 -0.144   14 -0.592
TEMPO     11 33 3769 4152 -0.058 22.835   13 -0.610   13 -0.642   15 -0.753   13 0.4401    2  3.771   12 -0.371   15 -1.135
SUN       11 33 3470 3875 -0.079 22.528   14 -0.622   14 -0.648   14 -0.692   14 0.4383   13  3.614   15 -1.014   10 -0.370
STORM      8 36 3616 3913 -0.068 22.426   15 -0.767   15 -0.832   13 -0.544   15 0.4224   12  3.664   14 -0.647   11 -0.441

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 41 16 4609 4284  0.122 30.167    1  0.651    1  0.616    2  0.514    1 0.5587   15  3.468   13 -0.414    1  1.442
LYNX      33 13 4143 3859  0.030 22.789    2  0.551    2  0.513    5  0.293    2 0.5507    8  3.710    4  0.392    6  0.194
ACES      33 18 4613 4377  0.054 25.978    4  0.420    4  0.383    3  0.380    4 0.5367    6  3.723    3  0.541    4  0.220
WINGS     28 19 4194 4032  0.024 23.597    6  0.276    6  0.234    7  0.220    6 0.5227    7  3.715    6  0.345    7  0.095
FIRE      17 27 3794 4005 -0.059 22.273    9 -0.269    9 -0.285   11 -0.324    9 0.4701    5  3.724    9 -0.160   12 -0.488
SPARKS    16 28 3830 4018 -0.052 22.271   11 -0.332   10 -0.355   10 -0.281   10 0.4652    3  3.752    7  0.010   13 -0.572
MERCURY   16 28 3712 3854 -0.048 22.140   10 -0.329   11 -0.359    9 -0.255   11 0.4652   11  3.675   10 -0.313    8 -0.197
STORM      8 36 3616 3913 -0.068 22.426   15 -0.767   15 -0.832   13 -0.544   15 0.4224   12  3.664   14 -0.647   11 -0.441

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     38 18 4982 4604  0.095 28.988    3  0.531    3  0.485    1  0.653    3 0.5483   10  3.689    2  0.661    2  0.644
FEVER     29 18 4489 4264  0.038 23.660    5  0.332    5  0.289    6  0.289    5 0.5283    1  3.824    1  0.918    9 -0.339
MYSTICS   28 18 3848 3825 -0.036 22.694    7  0.252    7  0.225    8  0.065    7 0.5222   14  3.588   11 -0.370    3  0.500
LIBERTY   29 21 4475 4311  0.048 25.592    8  0.250    8  0.205    4  0.297    8 0.5208    9  3.708    5  0.387    5  0.206
SKY       16 28 3818 3989 -0.065 22.041   12 -0.334   12 -0.359   12 -0.368   12 0.4643    4  3.737    8 -0.144   14 -0.592
TEMPO     11 33 3769 4152 -0.058 22.835   13 -0.610   13 -0.642   15 -0.753   13 0.4401    2  3.771   12 -0.371   15 -1.135
SUN       11 33 3470 3875 -0.079 22.528   14 -0.622   14 -0.648   14 -0.692   14 0.4383   13  3.614   15 -1.014   10 -0.370

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 192 185 0.509    1  0.011
EASTERN CONFERENCE 162 169 0.489    2 -0.088

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: Sun Nov  1 05:30:14 2026
games through: Sat Oct 31 2026

Back to Dolphin rankings main page.