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      34 11 3846 3447  0.026 20.915    1  0.606    1  0.603    1  0.657    1 0.5590    9  3.613    1  0.574    1  0.740
ACES      30 14 3680 3552  0.007 20.890    2  0.417    2  0.436    3  0.345    2 0.5413    5  3.653    3  0.435    4  0.256
DREAM     30 14 3712 3378 -0.013 19.772    3  0.388    3  0.381    2  0.605    3 0.5377   11  3.604    2  0.484    2  0.727
MERCURY   27 17 3643 3525  0.023 21.188    4  0.264    4  0.271    7  0.156    4 0.5268    6  3.633    7  0.159    6  0.153
LIBERTY   27 17 3713 3534  0.029 20.997    5  0.262    5  0.263    5  0.197    5 0.5263    3  3.662    6  0.327    8  0.067
FEVER     25 20 3808 3645 -0.007 20.954    6  0.115    6  0.108    4  0.239    6 0.5103    4  3.661    4  0.363    7  0.116
VALKYRIES 23 21 3420 3359  0.028 21.471    8  0.066    8  0.068    6  0.156    7 0.5066   13  3.512   10 -0.352    3  0.664
STORM     23 21 3614 3524  0.027 21.374    7  0.070    7  0.069    8  0.128    8 0.5063    8  3.613    8  0.046    5  0.209
SPARKS    21 23 3769 3882  0.015 21.998    9 -0.049    9 -0.029    9 -0.181    9 0.4958    1  3.754    5  0.362   12 -0.724
MYSTICS   16 28 3394 3589 -0.024 21.814   10 -0.321   10 -0.311   11 -0.458   10 0.4680   12  3.575   11 -0.705    9 -0.211
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
SUN       11 33 3337 3782 -0.015 22.711   11 -0.582   11 -0.567   12 -0.657   11 0.4428   10  3.613   12 -0.741   10 -0.573
WINGS     10 34 3594 3871  0.029 22.794   12 -0.595   12 -0.610   10 -0.450   12 0.4400    2  3.712    9 -0.096   13 -0.803
SKY       10 34 3335 3777 -0.012 22.798   13 -0.641   13 -0.640   13 -0.748   13 0.4378    7  3.616   13 -0.821   11 -0.676

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      34 11 3846 3447  0.026 20.915    1  0.606    1  0.603    1  0.657    1 0.5590    9  3.613    1  0.574    1  0.740
ACES      30 14 3680 3552  0.007 20.890    2  0.417    2  0.436    3  0.345    2 0.5413    5  3.653    3  0.435    4  0.256
MERCURY   27 17 3643 3525  0.023 21.188    4  0.264    4  0.271    7  0.156    4 0.5268    6  3.633    7  0.159    6  0.153
VALKYRIES 23 21 3420 3359  0.028 21.471    8  0.066    8  0.068    6  0.156    7 0.5066   13  3.512   10 -0.352    3  0.664
STORM     23 21 3614 3524  0.027 21.374    7  0.070    7  0.069    8  0.128    8 0.5063    8  3.613    8  0.046    5  0.209
SPARKS    21 23 3769 3882  0.015 21.998    9 -0.049    9 -0.029    9 -0.181    9 0.4958    1  3.754    5  0.362   12 -0.724
WINGS     10 34 3594 3871  0.029 22.794   12 -0.595   12 -0.610   10 -0.450   12 0.4400    2  3.712    9 -0.096   13 -0.803

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     30 14 3712 3378 -0.013 19.772    3  0.388    3  0.381    2  0.605    3 0.5377   11  3.604    2  0.484    2  0.727
LIBERTY   27 17 3713 3534  0.029 20.997    5  0.262    5  0.263    5  0.197    5 0.5263    3  3.662    6  0.327    8  0.067
FEVER     25 20 3808 3645 -0.007 20.954    6  0.115    6  0.108    4  0.239    6 0.5103    4  3.661    4  0.363    7  0.116
MYSTICS   16 28 3394 3589 -0.024 21.814   10 -0.321   10 -0.311   11 -0.458   10 0.4680   12  3.575   11 -0.705    9 -0.211
SUN       11 33 3337 3782 -0.015 22.711   11 -0.582   11 -0.567   12 -0.657   11 0.4428   10  3.613   12 -0.741   10 -0.573
SKY       10 34 3335 3777 -0.012 22.798   13 -0.641   13 -0.640   13 -0.748   13 0.4378    7  3.616   13 -0.821   11 -0.676

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 168 141 0.544    1  0.125
EASTERN CONFERENCE 119 146 0.449    2 -0.144

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.310 points in main ratings (0.226 for semineutral)
     0.030 points in improved RPI (0.023 for semineutral)
Average of 2.15 points per score

Predict score:








Team Strength vs. Time Plot:






posted: Fri Sep 12 05:30:15 2025
games through: Thu Sep 11 2025

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