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 37 13 4137 3784  0.062 24.988    1  0.628    1  0.604    2  0.602    1 0.5588   15  3.494   10 -0.238    1  1.442
LYNX      33 13 4143 3859  0.044 22.818    2  0.550    2  0.527    4  0.319    2 0.5518    9  3.708    4  0.391    6  0.246
DREAM     35 14 4482 4132  0.027 23.914    3  0.537    3  0.509    1  0.616    3 0.5504    7  3.714    2  0.718    3  0.513
ACES      33 18 4613 4377  0.070 26.028    4  0.424    4  0.399    3  0.409    4 0.5378    6  3.721    3  0.539    4  0.278
FEVER     29 18 4489 4264  0.050 23.669    5  0.332    5  0.301    6  0.313    5 0.5294    1  3.822    1  0.914    9 -0.288
WINGS     28 19 4194 4032  0.040 23.650    6  0.280    6  0.250    7  0.246    6 0.5237    8  3.712    6  0.340    7  0.153
MYSTICS   28 18 3848 3825 -0.024 22.687    7  0.252    7  0.237    8  0.080    7 0.5233   14  3.585   12 -0.384    2  0.544
LIBERTY   29 21 4475 4311  0.058 25.571    8  0.249    8  0.216    5  0.316    8 0.5219   10  3.705    5  0.375    5  0.256
FIRE      17 27 3794 4005 -0.045 22.299    9 -0.268    9 -0.272   11 -0.319    9 0.4711    5  3.722    9 -0.183   12 -0.456
MERCURY   16 28 3712 3854 -0.035 22.158   10 -0.326   11 -0.345    9 -0.250   11 0.4663   11  3.673   11 -0.333    8 -0.168
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
SPARKS    16 28 3830 4018 -0.039 22.288   11 -0.330   10 -0.341   10 -0.276   10 0.4663    3  3.750    7 -0.011   13 -0.542
SKY       16 28 3818 3989 -0.052 22.057   12 -0.332   12 -0.345   12 -0.367   12 0.4654    4  3.736    8 -0.168   14 -0.567
TEMPO     11 33 3769 4152 -0.045 22.833   13 -0.609   13 -0.630   15 -0.766   13 0.4412    2  3.769   13 -0.413   15 -1.120
SUN       11 33 3470 3875 -0.066 22.539   14 -0.620   14 -0.635   14 -0.703   14 0.4394   13  3.613   15 -1.049   10 -0.356
STORM      8 36 3616 3913 -0.055 22.446   15 -0.766   15 -0.820   13 -0.550   15 0.4235   12  3.663   14 -0.677   11 -0.422

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 37 13 4137 3784  0.062 24.988    1  0.628    1  0.604    2  0.602    1 0.5588   15  3.494   10 -0.238    1  1.442
LYNX      33 13 4143 3859  0.044 22.818    2  0.550    2  0.527    4  0.319    2 0.5518    9  3.708    4  0.391    6  0.246
ACES      33 18 4613 4377  0.070 26.028    4  0.424    4  0.399    3  0.409    4 0.5378    6  3.721    3  0.539    4  0.278
WINGS     28 19 4194 4032  0.040 23.650    6  0.280    6  0.250    7  0.246    6 0.5237    8  3.712    6  0.340    7  0.153
FIRE      17 27 3794 4005 -0.045 22.299    9 -0.268    9 -0.272   11 -0.319    9 0.4711    5  3.722    9 -0.183   12 -0.456
MERCURY   16 28 3712 3854 -0.035 22.158   10 -0.326   11 -0.345    9 -0.250   11 0.4663   11  3.673   11 -0.333    8 -0.168
SPARKS    16 28 3830 4018 -0.039 22.288   11 -0.330   10 -0.341   10 -0.276   10 0.4663    3  3.750    7 -0.011   13 -0.542
STORM      8 36 3616 3913 -0.055 22.446   15 -0.766   15 -0.820   13 -0.550   15 0.4235   12  3.663   14 -0.677   11 -0.422

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 14 4482 4132  0.027 23.914    3  0.537    3  0.509    1  0.616    3 0.5504    7  3.714    2  0.718    3  0.513
FEVER     29 18 4489 4264  0.050 23.669    5  0.332    5  0.301    6  0.313    5 0.5294    1  3.822    1  0.914    9 -0.288
MYSTICS   28 18 3848 3825 -0.024 22.687    7  0.252    7  0.237    8  0.080    7 0.5233   14  3.585   12 -0.384    2  0.544
LIBERTY   29 21 4475 4311  0.058 25.571    8  0.249    8  0.216    5  0.316    8 0.5219   10  3.705    5  0.375    5  0.256
SKY       16 28 3818 3989 -0.052 22.057   12 -0.332   12 -0.345   12 -0.367   12 0.4654    4  3.736    8 -0.168   14 -0.567
TEMPO     11 33 3769 4152 -0.045 22.833   13 -0.609   13 -0.630   15 -0.766   13 0.4412    2  3.769   13 -0.413   15 -1.120
SUN       11 33 3470 3875 -0.066 22.539   14 -0.620   14 -0.635   14 -0.703   14 0.4394   13  3.613   15 -1.049   10 -0.356

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 188 182 0.508    1  0.030
EASTERN CONFERENCE 159 165 0.491    2 -0.082

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: Sat Oct 10 05:30:13 2026
games through: Fri Oct  9 2026

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