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      30  9 3347 3001  0.032 18.366    1  0.611    1  0.618    1  0.639    1 0.5629    9  3.614    1  0.543    1  0.735
DREAM     24 14 3154 2930  0.048 18.343    4  0.315    4  0.305    2  0.504    4 0.5309   11  3.594    4  0.323    2  0.686
VALKYRIES 19 18 2898 2872 -0.012 17.754    8  0.024    8  0.014    8  0.041    8 0.5027   13  3.532   10 -0.400    3  0.483
STORM     21 19 3300 3207  0.034 19.648    6  0.083    6  0.078    6  0.167    6 0.5074    8  3.616    8  0.081    4  0.254
MERCURY   24 14 3160 3042  0.045 18.691    3  0.318    3  0.331    4  0.226    3 0.5333    6  3.637    7  0.231    5  0.220
ACES      26 14 3308 3263  0.024 19.681    2  0.337    2  0.367    5  0.176    2 0.5352    5  3.650    6  0.239    6  0.113
LIBERTY   24 15 3342 3160  0.039 18.820    5  0.264    5  0.260    3  0.265    5 0.5274    3  3.679    2  0.454    7  0.075
FEVER     21 18 3316 3196 -0.010 18.355    7  0.077    7  0.066    7  0.164    7 0.5057    4  3.671    5  0.321    8  0.008
MYSTICS   16 23 3054 3165 -0.040 18.987   10 -0.221   10 -0.218   10 -0.305   10 0.4770   12  3.583   11 -0.533    9 -0.077
SUN       10 28 2906 3248 -0.036 19.121   11 -0.551   11 -0.536   12 -0.528   11 0.4431   10  3.607   12 -0.652   10 -0.404
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
SKY        9 29 2888 3274 -0.001 19.918   12 -0.591   12 -0.575   13 -0.732   12 0.4396    7  3.620   13 -0.801   11 -0.663
SPARKS    17 19 3108 3190 -0.011 17.756    9 -0.071    9 -0.064    9 -0.173    9 0.4935    1  3.758    3  0.378   12 -0.724
WINGS      9 30 3191 3424 -0.000 19.860   13 -0.594   13 -0.603   11 -0.457   13 0.4385    2  3.707    9 -0.143   13 -0.771

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      30  9 3347 3001  0.032 18.366    1  0.611    1  0.618    1  0.639    1 0.5629    9  3.614    1  0.543    1  0.735
VALKYRIES 19 18 2898 2872 -0.012 17.754    8  0.024    8  0.014    8  0.041    8 0.5027   13  3.532   10 -0.400    3  0.483
STORM     21 19 3300 3207  0.034 19.648    6  0.083    6  0.078    6  0.167    6 0.5074    8  3.616    8  0.081    4  0.254
MERCURY   24 14 3160 3042  0.045 18.691    3  0.318    3  0.331    4  0.226    3 0.5333    6  3.637    7  0.231    5  0.220
ACES      26 14 3308 3263  0.024 19.681    2  0.337    2  0.367    5  0.176    2 0.5352    5  3.650    6  0.239    6  0.113
SPARKS    17 19 3108 3190 -0.011 17.756    9 -0.071    9 -0.064    9 -0.173    9 0.4935    1  3.758    3  0.378   12 -0.724
WINGS      9 30 3191 3424 -0.000 19.860   13 -0.594   13 -0.603   11 -0.457   13 0.4385    2  3.707    9 -0.143   13 -0.771

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     24 14 3154 2930  0.048 18.343    4  0.315    4  0.305    2  0.504    4 0.5309   11  3.594    4  0.323    2  0.686
LIBERTY   24 15 3342 3160  0.039 18.820    5  0.264    5  0.260    3  0.265    5 0.5274    3  3.679    2  0.454    7  0.075
FEVER     21 18 3316 3196 -0.010 18.355    7  0.077    7  0.066    7  0.164    7 0.5057    4  3.671    5  0.321    8  0.008
MYSTICS   16 23 3054 3165 -0.040 18.987   10 -0.221   10 -0.218   10 -0.305   10 0.4770   12  3.583   11 -0.533    9 -0.077
SUN       10 28 2906 3248 -0.036 19.121   11 -0.551   11 -0.536   12 -0.528   11 0.4431   10  3.607   12 -0.652   10 -0.404
SKY        9 29 2888 3274 -0.001 19.918   12 -0.591   12 -0.575   13 -0.732   12 0.4396    7  3.620   13 -0.801   11 -0.663

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 146 123 0.543    1  0.104
EASTERN CONFERENCE 104 127 0.450    2 -0.120

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: Fri Aug 29 05:30:15 2025
games through: Thu Aug 28 2025

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