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      32  9 3537 3142  0.009 18.701    1  0.639    1  0.638    1  0.693    1 0.5629    8  3.617    1  0.618    1  0.768
MERCURY   26 14 3325 3184  0.066 19.844    2  0.388    2  0.396    3  0.306    2 0.5385    6  3.632    5  0.297    4  0.315
ACES      26 14 3308 3263  0.026 19.621    3  0.351    3  0.372    6  0.178    3 0.5355    5  3.652    6  0.258    6  0.098
DREAM     26 14 3347 3084  0.017 18.634    4  0.333    4  0.325    2  0.540    4 0.5321   11  3.603    2  0.407    3  0.673
LIBERTY   24 17 3463 3306  0.050 19.997    5  0.213    5  0.210    5  0.189    5 0.5217    3  3.663    4  0.319    7  0.058
VALKYRIES 22 18 3138 3055  0.001 19.099    6  0.101    6  0.103    4  0.214    6 0.5115   13  3.520   10 -0.268    2  0.696
STORM     22 20 3464 3367  0.015 20.238    7  0.060    7  0.060    7  0.139    7 0.5059    9  3.615    8  0.056    5  0.222
FEVER     22 20 3534 3431 -0.009 19.824    8  0.044    8  0.038    8  0.106    8 0.5032    4  3.659    7  0.218    8 -0.006
SPARKS    19 20 3355 3429 -0.007 19.159    9 -0.044    9 -0.030    9 -0.136    9 0.4967    1  3.752    3  0.393   11 -0.666
MYSTICS   16 25 3194 3345 -0.046 19.949   10 -0.277   10 -0.268   10 -0.400   10 0.4724   12  3.584   11 -0.613    9 -0.188
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
SUN       10 30 3052 3435 -0.023 20.426   11 -0.579   11 -0.568   12 -0.579   11 0.4417   10  3.614   12 -0.664   10 -0.493
SKY        9 30 2957 3353 -0.003 20.403   12 -0.612   12 -0.603   13 -0.736   12 0.4383    7  3.618   13 -0.804   12 -0.667
WINGS      9 32 3340 3620  0.020 21.279   13 -0.615   13 -0.627   11 -0.522   13 0.4377    2  3.711    9 -0.177   13 -0.866

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      32  9 3537 3142  0.009 18.701    1  0.639    1  0.638    1  0.693    1 0.5629    8  3.617    1  0.618    1  0.768
MERCURY   26 14 3325 3184  0.066 19.844    2  0.388    2  0.396    3  0.306    2 0.5385    6  3.632    5  0.297    4  0.315
ACES      26 14 3308 3263  0.026 19.621    3  0.351    3  0.372    6  0.178    3 0.5355    5  3.652    6  0.258    6  0.098
VALKYRIES 22 18 3138 3055  0.001 19.099    6  0.101    6  0.103    4  0.214    6 0.5115   13  3.520   10 -0.268    2  0.696
STORM     22 20 3464 3367  0.015 20.238    7  0.060    7  0.060    7  0.139    7 0.5059    9  3.615    8  0.056    5  0.222
SPARKS    19 20 3355 3429 -0.007 19.159    9 -0.044    9 -0.030    9 -0.136    9 0.4967    1  3.752    3  0.393   11 -0.666
WINGS      9 32 3340 3620  0.020 21.279   13 -0.615   13 -0.627   11 -0.522   13 0.4377    2  3.711    9 -0.177   13 -0.866

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     26 14 3347 3084  0.017 18.634    4  0.333    4  0.325    2  0.540    4 0.5321   11  3.603    2  0.407    3  0.673
LIBERTY   24 17 3463 3306  0.050 19.997    5  0.213    5  0.210    5  0.189    5 0.5217    3  3.663    4  0.319    7  0.058
FEVER     22 20 3534 3431 -0.009 19.824    8  0.044    8  0.038    8  0.106    8 0.5032    4  3.659    7  0.218    8 -0.006
MYSTICS   16 25 3194 3345 -0.046 19.949   10 -0.277   10 -0.268   10 -0.400   10 0.4724   12  3.584   11 -0.613    9 -0.188
SUN       10 30 3052 3435 -0.023 20.426   11 -0.579   11 -0.568   12 -0.579   11 0.4417   10  3.614   12 -0.664   10 -0.493
SKY        9 30 2957 3353 -0.003 20.403   12 -0.612   12 -0.603   13 -0.736   12 0.4383    7  3.618   13 -0.804   12 -0.667

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 156 127 0.551    1  0.133
EASTERN CONFERENCE 107 136 0.440    2 -0.155

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: Wed Sep  3 05:30:11 2025
games through: Tue Sep  2 2025

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