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      36 11 4022 3593  0.024 21.956    1  0.642    1  0.632    1  0.692    1 0.5610    8  3.619    1  0.639    1  0.744
ACES      31 15 3865 3715  0.007 21.932    2  0.407    2  0.415    3  0.381    2 0.5392    3  3.659    2  0.505    5  0.257
DREAM     31 15 3852 3523 -0.007 20.987    3  0.383    3  0.371    2  0.559    3 0.5359   11  3.595    3  0.404    2  0.715
MERCURY   28 18 3798 3661  0.029 22.339    4  0.264    4  0.263    5  0.212    4 0.5260    7  3.619    7  0.162    4  0.263
LIBERTY   28 18 3849 3689  0.030 22.246    5  0.260    5  0.258    6  0.139    5 0.5255    5  3.649    6  0.218    8  0.059
FEVER     26 21 3953 3785  0.012 22.334    6  0.130    6  0.119    4  0.269    6 0.5107    4  3.651    5  0.359    6  0.179
STORM     24 22 3777 3709  0.030 22.625    7  0.074    7  0.072    8  0.071    7 0.5069    6  3.620    8  0.026    7  0.117
VALKYRIES 23 23 3566 3535  0.050 23.060    8  0.038    8  0.035    7  0.108    8 0.5030   13  3.518   10 -0.369    3  0.585
SPARKS    21 23 3769 3882  0.009 22.025    9 -0.051    9 -0.036    9 -0.187    9 0.4951    1  3.754    4  0.367   12 -0.740
MYSTICS   16 28 3394 3589 -0.032 21.811   10 -0.323   10 -0.319   11 -0.464   10 0.4671   12  3.576   11 -0.699    9 -0.229
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 -0.023 22.696   11 -0.585   11 -0.577   12 -0.662   11 0.4420   10  3.614   12 -0.733   10 -0.591
WINGS     10 34 3594 3871  0.022 22.815   12 -0.597   12 -0.618   10 -0.454   12 0.4392    2  3.713    9 -0.089   13 -0.819
SKY       10 34 3335 3777 -0.019 22.822   13 -0.642   13 -0.648   13 -0.750   13 0.4371    9  3.618   13 -0.808   11 -0.693

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      36 11 4022 3593  0.024 21.956    1  0.642    1  0.632    1  0.692    1 0.5610    8  3.619    1  0.639    1  0.744
ACES      31 15 3865 3715  0.007 21.932    2  0.407    2  0.415    3  0.381    2 0.5392    3  3.659    2  0.505    5  0.257
MERCURY   28 18 3798 3661  0.029 22.339    4  0.264    4  0.263    5  0.212    4 0.5260    7  3.619    7  0.162    4  0.263
STORM     24 22 3777 3709  0.030 22.625    7  0.074    7  0.072    8  0.071    7 0.5069    6  3.620    8  0.026    7  0.117
VALKYRIES 23 23 3566 3535  0.050 23.060    8  0.038    8  0.035    7  0.108    8 0.5030   13  3.518   10 -0.369    3  0.585
SPARKS    21 23 3769 3882  0.009 22.025    9 -0.051    9 -0.036    9 -0.187    9 0.4951    1  3.754    4  0.367   12 -0.740
WINGS     10 34 3594 3871  0.022 22.815   12 -0.597   12 -0.618   10 -0.454   12 0.4392    2  3.713    9 -0.089   13 -0.819

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     31 15 3852 3523 -0.007 20.987    3  0.383    3  0.371    2  0.559    3 0.5359   11  3.595    3  0.404    2  0.715
LIBERTY   28 18 3849 3689  0.030 22.246    5  0.260    5  0.258    6  0.139    5 0.5255    5  3.649    6  0.218    8  0.059
FEVER     26 21 3953 3785  0.012 22.334    6  0.130    6  0.119    4  0.269    6 0.5107    4  3.651    5  0.359    6  0.179
MYSTICS   16 28 3394 3589 -0.032 21.811   10 -0.323   10 -0.319   11 -0.464   10 0.4671   12  3.576   11 -0.699    9 -0.229
SUN       11 33 3337 3782 -0.023 22.696   11 -0.585   11 -0.577   12 -0.662   11 0.4420   10  3.614   12 -0.733   10 -0.591
SKY       10 34 3335 3777 -0.019 22.822   13 -0.642   13 -0.648   13 -0.750   13 0.4371    9  3.618   13 -0.808   11 -0.693

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 173 146 0.542    1  0.123
EASTERN CONFERENCE 122 149 0.450    2 -0.159

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: Thu Sep 18 05:33:04 2025
games through: Wed Sep 17 2025

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