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 29 11 3305 3017  0.070 19.974    2  0.553    2  0.546    1  0.616    2 0.5567   15  3.507   10 -0.181    1  1.413
MYSTICS   24 16 3313 3321 -0.016 19.836    8  0.206    8  0.216    8  0.026    8 0.5226   14  3.571   13 -0.507    2  0.560
LYNX      31  9 3652 3337  0.035 19.452    1  0.632    1  0.631    2  0.505    1 0.5651    6  3.723    2  0.636    3  0.374
WINGS     24 16 3560 3414  0.054 20.192    6  0.271    6  0.259    6  0.286    6 0.5271   10  3.694    6  0.287    4  0.285
DREAM     26 14 3632 3428  0.027 19.652    4  0.351    4  0.342    4  0.350    4 0.5354    7  3.722    3  0.477    5  0.224
ACES      27 14 3709 3554  0.050 20.690    3  0.396    3  0.394    5  0.294    3 0.5415    4  3.727    4  0.446    6  0.142
LIBERTY   25 16 3686 3559 -0.008 19.951    7  0.231    7  0.224    7  0.190    7 0.5237    5  3.723    5  0.324    7  0.056
MERCURY   14 26 3367 3490 -0.031 20.032   12 -0.349   12 -0.357    9 -0.239   12 0.4636   11  3.666   12 -0.362    8 -0.117
FEVER     26 14 3880 3638  0.016 19.446    5  0.347    5  0.332    3  0.434    5 0.5338    1  3.838    1  1.103    9 -0.236
STORM      8 32 3314 3528 -0.063 19.903   15 -0.714   15 -0.744   13 -0.411   15 0.4263   12  3.659   14 -0.566   10 -0.255
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
SUN       10 30 3158 3511 -0.040 20.535   14 -0.590   14 -0.584   15 -0.648   14 0.4399   13  3.610   15 -1.014   11 -0.282
SKY       15 25 3467 3587 -0.020 20.224   10 -0.279   10 -0.280   10 -0.245   10 0.4693    9  3.718    8 -0.137   12 -0.353
FIRE      16 24 3463 3642 -0.030 20.241    9 -0.240    9 -0.227   11 -0.270    9 0.4752    8  3.720    9 -0.150   13 -0.389
SPARKS    15 25 3494 3672 -0.040 20.095   11 -0.302   11 -0.295   12 -0.312   11 0.4686    3  3.755    7 -0.034   14 -0.590
TEMPO     11 29 3449 3751 -0.007 20.929   13 -0.514   13 -0.512   14 -0.605   13 0.4497    2  3.771   11 -0.250   15 -0.960

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 29 11 3305 3017  0.070 19.974    2  0.553    2  0.546    1  0.616    2 0.5567   15  3.507   10 -0.181    1  1.413
LYNX      31  9 3652 3337  0.035 19.452    1  0.632    1  0.631    2  0.505    1 0.5651    6  3.723    2  0.636    3  0.374
WINGS     24 16 3560 3414  0.054 20.192    6  0.271    6  0.259    6  0.286    6 0.5271   10  3.694    6  0.287    4  0.285
ACES      27 14 3709 3554  0.050 20.690    3  0.396    3  0.394    5  0.294    3 0.5415    4  3.727    4  0.446    6  0.142
MERCURY   14 26 3367 3490 -0.031 20.032   12 -0.349   12 -0.357    9 -0.239   12 0.4636   11  3.666   12 -0.362    8 -0.117
STORM      8 32 3314 3528 -0.063 19.903   15 -0.714   15 -0.744   13 -0.411   15 0.4263   12  3.659   14 -0.566   10 -0.255
FIRE      16 24 3463 3642 -0.030 20.241    9 -0.240    9 -0.227   11 -0.270    9 0.4752    8  3.720    9 -0.150   13 -0.389
SPARKS    15 25 3494 3672 -0.040 20.095   11 -0.302   11 -0.295   12 -0.312   11 0.4686    3  3.755    7 -0.034   14 -0.590

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   24 16 3313 3321 -0.016 19.836    8  0.206    8  0.216    8  0.026    8 0.5226   14  3.571   13 -0.507    2  0.560
DREAM     26 14 3632 3428  0.027 19.652    4  0.351    4  0.342    4  0.350    4 0.5354    7  3.722    3  0.477    5  0.224
LIBERTY   25 16 3686 3559 -0.008 19.951    7  0.231    7  0.224    7  0.190    7 0.5237    5  3.723    5  0.324    7  0.056
FEVER     26 14 3880 3638  0.016 19.446    5  0.347    5  0.332    3  0.434    5 0.5338    1  3.838    1  1.103    9 -0.236
SUN       10 30 3158 3511 -0.040 20.535   14 -0.590   14 -0.584   15 -0.648   14 0.4399   13  3.610   15 -1.014   11 -0.282
SKY       15 25 3467 3587 -0.020 20.224   10 -0.279   10 -0.280   10 -0.245   10 0.4693    9  3.718    8 -0.137   12 -0.353
TEMPO     11 29 3449 3751 -0.007 20.929   13 -0.514   13 -0.512   14 -0.605   13 0.4497    2  3.771   11 -0.250   15 -0.960

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 164 157 0.511    1  0.061
EASTERN CONFERENCE 137 144 0.488    2 -0.073

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 31 05:30:16 2026
games through: Sun Aug 30 2026

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