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
ACES     42  8 4553 3964  0.079 25.634    1  0.972    1  0.917    1  0.843    1 0.5817    2  3.704    1  1.121    1  0.565
LIBERTY  39 12 4471 4111  0.142 27.713    2  0.774    2  0.737    2  0.633    2 0.5692    3  3.673    2  0.772    2  0.495
SUN      30 17 3882 3702  0.012 24.237    3  0.335    3  0.304    4  0.255    3 0.5343   11  3.586    4  0.015    3  0.494
WINGS    24 21 3937 3804  0.025 23.428    4  0.109    4  0.063    3  0.277    4 0.5085    1  3.732    3  0.679    6 -0.126
LYNX     20 23 3423 3654 -0.041 23.137    5 -0.076    5 -0.080   10 -0.390    5 0.4901    6  3.639    9 -0.400   10 -0.381
DREAM    19 23 3457 3555  0.001 22.652    6 -0.076    6 -0.101    8 -0.199    7 0.4888    4  3.662    5 -0.107    8 -0.290
MYSTICS  19 23 3381 3415 -0.006 22.250    7 -0.083    7 -0.117    5 -0.056    6 0.4889   10  3.599    7 -0.239    5  0.127
SKY      18 24 3398 3513 -0.011 22.637    8 -0.142    8 -0.160    7 -0.169    8 0.4836    7  3.634    6 -0.201    7 -0.136
SPARKS   17 23 3156 3221 -0.067 20.516    9 -0.194    9 -0.222    6 -0.120    9 0.4779   12  3.574   10 -0.411    4  0.172
FEVER    13 27 3240 3402 -0.076 20.824   10 -0.427   10 -0.469    9 -0.348   10 0.4559    5  3.649    8 -0.315   11 -0.382
TEAM      W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
STORM    11 29 3153 3378 -0.061 21.279   11 -0.525   11 -0.575   11 -0.395   11 0.4456    8  3.622   11 -0.480    9 -0.309
MERCURY   9 31 3064 3396 -0.085 21.281   12 -0.667   12 -0.715   12 -0.628   12 0.4318    9  3.599   12 -0.810   12 -0.447

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
ACES     42  8 4553 3964  0.079 25.634    1  0.972    1  0.917    1  0.843    1 0.5817    2  3.704    1  1.121    1  0.565
WINGS    24 21 3937 3804  0.025 23.428    4  0.109    4  0.063    3  0.277    4 0.5085    1  3.732    3  0.679    6 -0.126
LYNX     20 23 3423 3654 -0.041 23.137    5 -0.076    5 -0.080   10 -0.390    5 0.4901    6  3.639    9 -0.400   10 -0.381
SPARKS   17 23 3156 3221 -0.067 20.516    9 -0.194    9 -0.222    6 -0.120    9 0.4779   12  3.574   10 -0.411    4  0.172
STORM    11 29 3153 3378 -0.061 21.279   11 -0.525   11 -0.575   11 -0.395   11 0.4456    8  3.622   11 -0.480    9 -0.309
MERCURY   9 31 3064 3396 -0.085 21.281   12 -0.667   12 -0.715   12 -0.628   12 0.4318    9  3.599   12 -0.810   12 -0.447

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  39 12 4471 4111  0.142 27.713    2  0.774    2  0.737    2  0.633    2 0.5692    3  3.673    2  0.772    2  0.495
SUN      30 17 3882 3702  0.012 24.237    3  0.335    3  0.304    4  0.255    3 0.5343   11  3.586    4  0.015    3  0.494
DREAM    19 23 3457 3555  0.001 22.652    6 -0.076    6 -0.101    8 -0.199    7 0.4888    4  3.662    5 -0.107    8 -0.290
MYSTICS  19 23 3381 3415 -0.006 22.250    7 -0.083    7 -0.117    5 -0.056    6 0.4889   10  3.599    7 -0.239    5  0.127
SKY      18 24 3398 3513 -0.011 22.637    8 -0.142    8 -0.160    7 -0.169    8 0.4836    7  3.634    6 -0.201    7 -0.136
FEVER    13 27 3240 3402 -0.076 20.824   10 -0.427   10 -0.469    9 -0.348   10 0.4559    5  3.649    8 -0.315   11 -0.382

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
EASTERN CONFERENCE 138 126 0.523    1  0.028
WESTERN CONFERENCE 123 135 0.477    2 -0.127

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.213 points in main ratings (0.226 for semineutral)
     0.010 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 12 21:45:43 2025
games through: Wed Oct 18 2023

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