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
SPARKS    15 16 2663 2722 -0.006 15.477    9 -0.046    9 -0.032    9 -0.131    9 0.4981    1  3.751    4  0.395   12 -0.656
WINGS      8 24 2611 2774  0.027 16.722   12 -0.518   12 -0.531   11 -0.321   12 0.4447    2  3.696    8 -0.043   10 -0.599
LIBERTY   20 11 2678 2508  0.041 14.981    2  0.326    2  0.319    3  0.316    2 0.5326    3  3.687    2  0.554    7  0.079
ACES      18 14 2625 2653 -0.005 15.781    6  0.123    5  0.149    8 -0.050    6 0.5126    4  3.663    7  0.080    9 -0.179
FEVER     19 14 2784 2667 -0.022 15.429    5  0.139    6  0.137    5  0.181    5 0.5138    5  3.653    6  0.265    6  0.098
MERCURY   19 12 2577 2465  0.081 15.608    4  0.298    3  0.308    4  0.315    4 0.5292    6  3.630    5  0.299    4  0.330
DREAM     20 11 2612 2422  0.021 14.632    3  0.311    4  0.299    2  0.484    3 0.5308    7  3.622    3  0.435    2  0.533
SKY        8 23 2351 2678  0.072 17.214   11 -0.482   11 -0.454   12 -0.701   11 0.4499    8  3.621   12 -0.757   11 -0.645
SUN        5 26 2321 2702  0.023 16.543   13 -0.720   13 -0.720   13 -0.785   13 0.4239    9  3.616   13 -0.861   13 -0.708
LYNX      27  6 2842 2494 -0.019 14.799    1  0.682    1  0.693    1  0.755    1 0.5706   10  3.602    1  0.619    1  0.891
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
STORM     16 16 2622 2555 -0.002 15.436    8 -0.005    8 -0.011    6  0.079    8 0.4988   11  3.602    9 -0.058    5  0.217
MYSTICS   14 17 2437 2496 -0.016 15.373   10 -0.115   10 -0.102   10 -0.166   10 0.4881   12  3.578   10 -0.403    8  0.071
VALKYRIES 16 15 2404 2391 -0.017 14.953    7  0.008    7  0.011    7  0.005    7 0.5028   13  3.513   11 -0.501    3  0.511

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    15 16 2663 2722 -0.006 15.477    9 -0.046    9 -0.032    9 -0.131    9 0.4981    1  3.751    4  0.395   12 -0.656
WINGS      8 24 2611 2774  0.027 16.722   12 -0.518   12 -0.531   11 -0.321   12 0.4447    2  3.696    8 -0.043   10 -0.599
ACES      18 14 2625 2653 -0.005 15.781    6  0.123    5  0.149    8 -0.050    6 0.5126    4  3.663    7  0.080    9 -0.179
MERCURY   19 12 2577 2465  0.081 15.608    4  0.298    3  0.308    4  0.315    4 0.5292    6  3.630    5  0.299    4  0.330
LYNX      27  6 2842 2494 -0.019 14.799    1  0.682    1  0.693    1  0.755    1 0.5706   10  3.602    1  0.619    1  0.891
STORM     16 16 2622 2555 -0.002 15.436    8 -0.005    8 -0.011    6  0.079    8 0.4988   11  3.602    9 -0.058    5  0.217
VALKYRIES 16 15 2404 2391 -0.017 14.953    7  0.008    7  0.011    7  0.005    7 0.5028   13  3.513   11 -0.501    3  0.511

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
LIBERTY   20 11 2678 2508  0.041 14.981    2  0.326    2  0.319    3  0.316    2 0.5326    3  3.687    2  0.554    7  0.079
FEVER     19 14 2784 2667 -0.022 15.429    5  0.139    6  0.137    5  0.181    5 0.5138    5  3.653    6  0.265    6  0.098
DREAM     20 11 2612 2422  0.021 14.632    3  0.311    4  0.299    2  0.484    3 0.5308    7  3.622    3  0.435    2  0.533
SKY        8 23 2351 2678  0.072 17.214   11 -0.482   11 -0.454   12 -0.701   11 0.4499    8  3.621   12 -0.757   11 -0.645
SUN        5 26 2321 2702  0.023 16.543   13 -0.720   13 -0.720   13 -0.785   13 0.4239    9  3.616   13 -0.861   13 -0.708
MYSTICS   14 17 2437 2496 -0.016 15.373   10 -0.115   10 -0.102   10 -0.166   10 0.4881   12  3.578   10 -0.403    8  0.071

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 119 103 0.536    1  0.101
EASTERN CONFERENCE  86 102 0.457    2 -0.115

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.309 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: Tue Aug 12 05:30:11 2025
games through: Mon Aug 11 2025

Back to Dolphin rankings main page.