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
FEVER     29 18 4489 4264  0.046 23.675    5  0.333    5  0.297    6  0.303    5 0.5290    1  3.822    1  0.912    9 -0.306
TEMPO     11 33 3769 4152 -0.050 22.847   13 -0.609   13 -0.634   15 -0.757   13 0.4408    2  3.770   13 -0.395   15 -1.119
SPARKS    16 28 3830 4018 -0.044 22.279   11 -0.331   10 -0.347   10 -0.277   10 0.4658    3  3.751    7 -0.004   13 -0.551
SKY       16 28 3818 3989 -0.057 22.050   12 -0.334   12 -0.352   12 -0.366   12 0.4649    4  3.736    8 -0.159   14 -0.572
FIRE      17 27 3794 4005 -0.051 22.274    9 -0.269    9 -0.277   11 -0.322    9 0.4706    5  3.722    9 -0.177   12 -0.466
ACES      33 18 4613 4377  0.061 25.969    4  0.419    4  0.390    3  0.393    4 0.5372    6  3.721    3  0.532    4  0.254
WINGS     28 19 4194 4032  0.031 23.588    6  0.275    6  0.241    7  0.230    6 0.5231    7  3.713    6  0.332    7  0.127
LYNX      33 13 4143 3859  0.037 22.792    3  0.550    3  0.521    5  0.306    3 0.5513    8  3.708    4  0.386    6  0.226
DREAM     37 15 4722 4336  0.060 26.036    2  0.568    2  0.532    1  0.707    2 0.5525    9  3.708    2  0.786    2  0.628
LIBERTY   29 21 4475 4311  0.056 25.617    8  0.251    8  0.214    4  0.312    8 0.5216   10  3.706    5  0.380    5  0.243
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 -0.040 22.149   10 -0.328   11 -0.351    9 -0.251   11 0.4658   11  3.674   10 -0.326    8 -0.175
STORM      8 36 3616 3913 -0.060 22.435   15 -0.765   15 -0.824   13 -0.545   15 0.4231   12  3.663   14 -0.666   11 -0.425
SUN       11 33 3470 3875 -0.071 22.535   14 -0.620   14 -0.640   14 -0.695   14 0.4389   13  3.613   15 -1.034   10 -0.355
MYSTICS   28 18 3848 3825 -0.027 22.714    7  0.253    7  0.234    8  0.076    7 0.5229   14  3.586   12 -0.379    3  0.532
VALKYRIES 38 15 4341 4024  0.090 27.260    1  0.607    1  0.578    2  0.487    1 0.5558   15  3.488   11 -0.374    1  1.348

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
SPARKS    16 28 3830 4018 -0.044 22.279   11 -0.331   10 -0.347   10 -0.277   10 0.4658    3  3.751    7 -0.004   13 -0.551
FIRE      17 27 3794 4005 -0.051 22.274    9 -0.269    9 -0.277   11 -0.322    9 0.4706    5  3.722    9 -0.177   12 -0.466
ACES      33 18 4613 4377  0.061 25.969    4  0.419    4  0.390    3  0.393    4 0.5372    6  3.721    3  0.532    4  0.254
WINGS     28 19 4194 4032  0.031 23.588    6  0.275    6  0.241    7  0.230    6 0.5231    7  3.713    6  0.332    7  0.127
LYNX      33 13 4143 3859  0.037 22.792    3  0.550    3  0.521    5  0.306    3 0.5513    8  3.708    4  0.386    6  0.226
MERCURY   16 28 3712 3854 -0.040 22.149   10 -0.328   11 -0.351    9 -0.251   11 0.4658   11  3.674   10 -0.326    8 -0.175
STORM      8 36 3616 3913 -0.060 22.435   15 -0.765   15 -0.824   13 -0.545   15 0.4231   12  3.663   14 -0.666   11 -0.425
VALKYRIES 38 15 4341 4024  0.090 27.260    1  0.607    1  0.578    2  0.487    1 0.5558   15  3.488   11 -0.374    1  1.348

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
FEVER     29 18 4489 4264  0.046 23.675    5  0.333    5  0.297    6  0.303    5 0.5290    1  3.822    1  0.912    9 -0.306
TEMPO     11 33 3769 4152 -0.050 22.847   13 -0.609   13 -0.634   15 -0.757   13 0.4408    2  3.770   13 -0.395   15 -1.119
SKY       16 28 3818 3989 -0.057 22.050   12 -0.334   12 -0.352   12 -0.366   12 0.4649    4  3.736    8 -0.159   14 -0.572
DREAM     37 15 4722 4336  0.060 26.036    2  0.568    2  0.532    1  0.707    2 0.5525    9  3.708    2  0.786    2  0.628
LIBERTY   29 21 4475 4311  0.056 25.617    8  0.251    8  0.214    4  0.312    8 0.5216   10  3.706    5  0.380    5  0.243
SUN       11 33 3470 3875 -0.071 22.535   14 -0.620   14 -0.640   14 -0.695   14 0.4389   13  3.613   15 -1.034   10 -0.355
MYSTICS   28 18 3848 3825 -0.027 22.714    7  0.253    7  0.234    8  0.076    7 0.5229   14  3.586   12 -0.379    3  0.532

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 189 184 0.507    1  0.016
EASTERN CONFERENCE 161 166 0.492    2 -0.078

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: Thu Oct 22 05:30:12 2026
games through: Wed Oct 21 2026

Back to Dolphin rankings main page.