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 20  9 2396 2232  0.063 14.728    2  0.425    2  0.414    2  0.414    2 0.5489   15  3.534   11 -0.281    1  1.109
MYSTICS   16 12 2273 2320 -0.021 14.138    8  0.114    8  0.139    8 -0.088    8 0.5157   14  3.537   14 -0.769    2  0.593
LYNX      25  6 2874 2584 -0.034 14.375    1  0.605    1  0.593    1  0.537    1 0.5661    6  3.731    2  0.700    3  0.374
WINGS     19 11 2675 2553  0.035 15.076    5  0.291    5  0.285    5  0.263    5 0.5340   10  3.681    6  0.200    4  0.326
DREAM     18 10 2503 2387  0.052 14.229    4  0.319    4  0.308    6  0.250    4 0.5356    8  3.711    4  0.321    5  0.178
ACES      20 10 2736 2604  0.018 14.895    3  0.353    3  0.341    4  0.296    3 0.5395    4  3.741    3  0.504    6  0.087
MERCURY   11 19 2506 2606  0.027 15.815   11 -0.241   10 -0.243   10 -0.196   11 0.4699   12  3.637   12 -0.452    7  0.060
LIBERTY   18 13 2789 2717 -0.008 15.314    7  0.146    7  0.144    7  0.109    7 0.5199    5  3.734    5  0.284    8 -0.066
SUN        7 23 2395 2620 -0.068 15.112   14 -0.576   14 -0.580   15 -0.485   14 0.4337   13  3.621   15 -0.810    9 -0.159
STORM      6 25 2559 2727 -0.028 15.991   15 -0.632   15 -0.663   12 -0.335   15 0.4286   11  3.659   13 -0.494   10 -0.175
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
SKY       11 18 2541 2594 -0.014 14.719   10 -0.240   11 -0.245    9 -0.111   10 0.4725    7  3.714    9 -0.024   11 -0.197
FEVER     19 11 2895 2720 -0.019 14.350    6  0.245    6  0.235    3  0.373    6 0.5278    1  3.841    1  1.050   12 -0.303
FIRE      11 19 2586 2762 -0.014 15.583   12 -0.263   12 -0.258   13 -0.345   12 0.4691    9  3.710   10 -0.277   13 -0.414
SPARKS    11 17 2510 2641 -0.020 14.387    9 -0.223    9 -0.216   11 -0.298    9 0.4740    2  3.785    7  0.113   14 -0.708
TEMPO     10 19 2545 2716 -0.021 15.023   13 -0.322   13 -0.318   14 -0.431   13 0.4655    3  3.784    8 -0.023   15 -0.839

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 20  9 2396 2232  0.063 14.728    2  0.425    2  0.414    2  0.414    2 0.5489   15  3.534   11 -0.281    1  1.109
LYNX      25  6 2874 2584 -0.034 14.375    1  0.605    1  0.593    1  0.537    1 0.5661    6  3.731    2  0.700    3  0.374
WINGS     19 11 2675 2553  0.035 15.076    5  0.291    5  0.285    5  0.263    5 0.5340   10  3.681    6  0.200    4  0.326
ACES      20 10 2736 2604  0.018 14.895    3  0.353    3  0.341    4  0.296    3 0.5395    4  3.741    3  0.504    6  0.087
MERCURY   11 19 2506 2606  0.027 15.815   11 -0.241   10 -0.243   10 -0.196   11 0.4699   12  3.637   12 -0.452    7  0.060
STORM      6 25 2559 2727 -0.028 15.991   15 -0.632   15 -0.663   12 -0.335   15 0.4286   11  3.659   13 -0.494   10 -0.175
FIRE      11 19 2586 2762 -0.014 15.583   12 -0.263   12 -0.258   13 -0.345   12 0.4691    9  3.710   10 -0.277   13 -0.414
SPARKS    11 17 2510 2641 -0.020 14.387    9 -0.223    9 -0.216   11 -0.298    9 0.4740    2  3.785    7  0.113   14 -0.708

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   16 12 2273 2320 -0.021 14.138    8  0.114    8  0.139    8 -0.088    8 0.5157   14  3.537   14 -0.769    2  0.593
DREAM     18 10 2503 2387  0.052 14.229    4  0.319    4  0.308    6  0.250    4 0.5356    8  3.711    4  0.321    5  0.178
LIBERTY   18 13 2789 2717 -0.008 15.314    7  0.146    7  0.144    7  0.109    7 0.5199    5  3.734    5  0.284    8 -0.066
SUN        7 23 2395 2620 -0.068 15.112   14 -0.576   14 -0.580   15 -0.485   14 0.4337   13  3.621   15 -0.810    9 -0.159
SKY       11 18 2541 2594 -0.014 14.719   10 -0.240   11 -0.245    9 -0.111   10 0.4725    7  3.714    9 -0.024   11 -0.197
FEVER     19 11 2895 2720 -0.019 14.350    6  0.245    6  0.235    3  0.373    6 0.5278    1  3.841    1  1.050   12 -0.303
TEMPO     10 19 2545 2716 -0.021 15.023   13 -0.322   13 -0.318   14 -0.431   13 0.4655    3  3.784    8 -0.023   15 -0.839

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 123 116 0.515    1  0.055
EASTERN CONFERENCE  99 106 0.483    2 -0.071

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: Mon Aug  3 05:30:08 2026
games through: Sun Aug  2 2026

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