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 38 13 4205 3848  0.072 25.704    1  0.651    1  0.627    1  0.607    1 0.5608   15  3.488   10 -0.255    1  1.470
LYNX      33 13 4143 3859  0.043 22.819    2  0.550    2  0.526    4  0.314    2 0.5517    9  3.708    4  0.391    6  0.236
DREAM     35 15 4546 4200  0.039 24.669    3  0.516    3  0.485    2  0.596    3 0.5480    8  3.709    2  0.676    3  0.516
ACES      33 18 4613 4377  0.069 26.034    4  0.424    4  0.398    3  0.404    4 0.5377    6  3.721    3  0.540    4  0.267
FEVER     29 18 4489 4264  0.049 23.665    5  0.332    5  0.300    6  0.308    5 0.5292    1  3.822    1  0.914    9 -0.299
WINGS     28 19 4194 4032  0.039 23.656    6  0.280    6  0.249    7  0.243    6 0.5237    7  3.713    6  0.342    7  0.143
MYSTICS   28 18 3848 3825 -0.026 22.681    7  0.251    7  0.235    8  0.077    7 0.5231   14  3.586   12 -0.381    2  0.535
LIBERTY   29 21 4475 4311  0.056 25.565    8  0.249    8  0.215    5  0.310    8 0.5217   10  3.706    5  0.375    5  0.244
FIRE      17 27 3794 4005 -0.046 22.301    9 -0.268    9 -0.273   11 -0.317    9 0.4710    5  3.722    9 -0.175   12 -0.458
SPARKS    16 28 3830 4018 -0.040 22.288   11 -0.330   10 -0.343   10 -0.275   10 0.4661    3  3.751    7 -0.004   13 -0.545
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 -0.037 22.157   10 -0.326   11 -0.346    9 -0.249   11 0.4661   11  3.673   11 -0.327    8 -0.171
SKY       16 28 3818 3989 -0.054 22.056   12 -0.332   12 -0.346   12 -0.365   12 0.4652    4  3.736    8 -0.161   14 -0.568
TEMPO     11 33 3769 4152 -0.047 22.831   13 -0.610   13 -0.631   15 -0.759   13 0.4410    2  3.770   13 -0.400   15 -1.118
SUN       11 33 3470 3875 -0.067 22.539   14 -0.620   14 -0.636   14 -0.696   14 0.4392   13  3.613   15 -1.038   10 -0.354
STORM      8 36 3616 3913 -0.056 22.445   15 -0.767   15 -0.822   13 -0.544   15 0.4234   12  3.663   14 -0.667   11 -0.421

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 38 13 4205 3848  0.072 25.704    1  0.651    1  0.627    1  0.607    1 0.5608   15  3.488   10 -0.255    1  1.470
LYNX      33 13 4143 3859  0.043 22.819    2  0.550    2  0.526    4  0.314    2 0.5517    9  3.708    4  0.391    6  0.236
ACES      33 18 4613 4377  0.069 26.034    4  0.424    4  0.398    3  0.404    4 0.5377    6  3.721    3  0.540    4  0.267
WINGS     28 19 4194 4032  0.039 23.656    6  0.280    6  0.249    7  0.243    6 0.5237    7  3.713    6  0.342    7  0.143
FIRE      17 27 3794 4005 -0.046 22.301    9 -0.268    9 -0.273   11 -0.317    9 0.4710    5  3.722    9 -0.175   12 -0.458
SPARKS    16 28 3830 4018 -0.040 22.288   11 -0.330   10 -0.343   10 -0.275   10 0.4661    3  3.751    7 -0.004   13 -0.545
MERCURY   16 28 3712 3854 -0.037 22.157   10 -0.326   11 -0.346    9 -0.249   11 0.4661   11  3.673   11 -0.327    8 -0.171
STORM      8 36 3616 3913 -0.056 22.445   15 -0.767   15 -0.822   13 -0.544   15 0.4234   12  3.663   14 -0.667   11 -0.421

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     35 15 4546 4200  0.039 24.669    3  0.516    3  0.485    2  0.596    3 0.5480    8  3.709    2  0.676    3  0.516
FEVER     29 18 4489 4264  0.049 23.665    5  0.332    5  0.300    6  0.308    5 0.5292    1  3.822    1  0.914    9 -0.299
MYSTICS   28 18 3848 3825 -0.026 22.681    7  0.251    7  0.235    8  0.077    7 0.5231   14  3.586   12 -0.381    2  0.535
LIBERTY   29 21 4475 4311  0.056 25.565    8  0.249    8  0.215    5  0.310    8 0.5217   10  3.706    5  0.375    5  0.244
SKY       16 28 3818 3989 -0.054 22.056   12 -0.332   12 -0.346   12 -0.365   12 0.4652    4  3.736    8 -0.161   14 -0.568
TEMPO     11 33 3769 4152 -0.047 22.831   13 -0.610   13 -0.631   15 -0.759   13 0.4410    2  3.770   13 -0.400   15 -1.118
SUN       11 33 3470 3875 -0.067 22.539   14 -0.620   14 -0.636   14 -0.696   14 0.4392   13  3.613   15 -1.038   10 -0.354

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 189 182 0.509    1  0.029
EASTERN CONFERENCE 159 166 0.489    2 -0.084

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: Sun Oct 18 05:30:17 2026
games through: Sat Oct 17 2026

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