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 18  7 2055 1903  0.105 13.119    2  0.482    2  0.486    2  0.487    2 0.5565   14  3.522   10 -0.194    1  1.169
MYSTICS   12 11 1841 1906 -0.069 11.410    8 -0.007    8  0.008   10 -0.223    8 0.4990   15  3.514   15 -0.938    2  0.493
LYNX      19  6 2270 2048  0.023 12.201    1  0.499    1  0.488    1  0.519    1 0.5602    6  3.711    2  0.650    3  0.388
WINGS     16  8 2147 2049  0.080 12.530    4  0.366    4  0.362    3  0.293    4 0.5433    9  3.700    4  0.377    4  0.208
DREAM     14 10 2119 2034  0.079 12.568    5  0.216    5  0.195    6  0.219    5 0.5256    7  3.710    5  0.348    5  0.090
LIBERTY   14 11 2201 2112 -0.022 12.194    7  0.105    7  0.078    7  0.186    7 0.5146    8  3.704    6  0.286    6  0.086
ACES      17  8 2243 2155  0.064 12.973    3  0.380    3  0.389    5  0.261    3 0.5463    4  3.726    3  0.459    7  0.063
MERCURY    8 17 2082 2182  0.071 13.754   12 -0.291   12 -0.295    9 -0.217   13 0.4633   11  3.643   12 -0.385    8 -0.048
SUN        6 18 1913 2073 -0.081 12.120   14 -0.513   14 -0.516   14 -0.368   14 0.4388   13  3.620   14 -0.640    9 -0.096
STORM      6 20 2090 2223 -0.119 12.592   15 -0.581   15 -0.602   15 -0.400   15 0.4302   12  3.628   13 -0.637   10 -0.163
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
FEVER     14 10 2237 2136  0.002 11.874    6  0.164    6  0.140    4  0.272    6 0.5211    1  3.794    1  0.785   11 -0.240
FIRE      11 14 2114 2244 -0.073 12.505   10 -0.155   10 -0.143   13 -0.335   10 0.4800   10  3.683   11 -0.328   12 -0.342
SKY        8 16 2082 2153 -0.007 12.454   13 -0.304   13 -0.309    8 -0.193   12 0.4635    5  3.716    9 -0.037   13 -0.348
SPARKS    10 13 2049 2155 -0.007 12.048    9 -0.121    9 -0.114   11 -0.269    9 0.4857    2  3.780    7  0.181   14 -0.718
TEMPO     10 14 2126 2196 -0.116 11.437   11 -0.240   11 -0.235   12 -0.280   11 0.4721    3  3.779    8  0.164   15 -0.723

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 18  7 2055 1903  0.105 13.119    2  0.482    2  0.486    2  0.487    2 0.5565   14  3.522   10 -0.194    1  1.169
LYNX      19  6 2270 2048  0.023 12.201    1  0.499    1  0.488    1  0.519    1 0.5602    6  3.711    2  0.650    3  0.388
WINGS     16  8 2147 2049  0.080 12.530    4  0.366    4  0.362    3  0.293    4 0.5433    9  3.700    4  0.377    4  0.208
ACES      17  8 2243 2155  0.064 12.973    3  0.380    3  0.389    5  0.261    3 0.5463    4  3.726    3  0.459    7  0.063
MERCURY    8 17 2082 2182  0.071 13.754   12 -0.291   12 -0.295    9 -0.217   13 0.4633   11  3.643   12 -0.385    8 -0.048
STORM      6 20 2090 2223 -0.119 12.592   15 -0.581   15 -0.602   15 -0.400   15 0.4302   12  3.628   13 -0.637   10 -0.163
FIRE      11 14 2114 2244 -0.073 12.505   10 -0.155   10 -0.143   13 -0.335   10 0.4800   10  3.683   11 -0.328   12 -0.342
SPARKS    10 13 2049 2155 -0.007 12.048    9 -0.121    9 -0.114   11 -0.269    9 0.4857    2  3.780    7  0.181   14 -0.718

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
MYSTICS   12 11 1841 1906 -0.069 11.410    8 -0.007    8  0.008   10 -0.223    8 0.4990   15  3.514   15 -0.938    2  0.493
DREAM     14 10 2119 2034  0.079 12.568    5  0.216    5  0.195    6  0.219    5 0.5256    7  3.710    5  0.348    5  0.090
LIBERTY   14 11 2201 2112 -0.022 12.194    7  0.105    7  0.078    7  0.186    7 0.5146    8  3.704    6  0.286    6  0.086
SUN        6 18 1913 2073 -0.081 12.120   14 -0.513   14 -0.516   14 -0.368   14 0.4388   13  3.620   14 -0.640    9 -0.096
FEVER     14 10 2237 2136  0.002 11.874    6  0.164    6  0.140    4  0.272    6 0.5211    1  3.794    1  0.785   11 -0.240
SKY        8 16 2082 2153 -0.007 12.454   13 -0.304   13 -0.309    8 -0.193   12 0.4635    5  3.716    9 -0.037   13 -0.348
TEMPO     10 14 2126 2196 -0.116 11.437   11 -0.240   11 -0.235   12 -0.280   11 0.4721    3  3.779    8  0.164   15 -0.723

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 105  93 0.530    1  0.060
EASTERN CONFERENCE  78  90 0.464    2 -0.080

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.337 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: Fri Jul 17 05:30:08 2026
games through: Thu Jul 16 2026

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