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      14  4 1634 1430  0.125  9.098    1  0.601    1  0.587    1  0.786    1 0.5696    9  3.682    1  0.782    2  0.789
ACES      13  5 1616 1542  0.085  9.260    2  0.487    2  0.489    4  0.319    2 0.5576    4  3.742    3  0.585    7  0.053
DREAM     12  6 1588 1488  0.214 10.034    3  0.463    3  0.463    2  0.477    3 0.5522   10  3.664    5  0.393    3  0.561
VALKYRIES 12  7 1579 1490  0.169 10.269    4  0.376    4  0.362    3  0.427    4 0.5399   14  3.565    9 -0.085    1  0.940
WINGS     11  7 1603 1542  0.169  9.851    5  0.318    5  0.311    5  0.309    5 0.5383    5  3.705    4  0.405    5  0.214
LIBERTY   12  7 1689 1594 -0.167  8.065    6  0.110    6  0.103    6  0.176    6 0.5190    6  3.703    7  0.264    6  0.087
FEVER     10  8 1674 1623 -0.016  8.752    7  0.078    7  0.081    7  0.162    7 0.5109    2  3.801    2  0.703   12 -0.379
SPARKS     8  9 1511 1586 -0.046  8.631    9 -0.098    9 -0.069   12 -0.296    8 0.4954    3  3.766    8  0.082   14 -0.674
MYSTICS    8  9 1368 1429 -0.039  8.659    8 -0.089    8 -0.055   11 -0.225    9 0.4882   15  3.565   13 -0.738    4  0.289
TEMPO      9  9 1645 1657 -0.200  7.864   10 -0.140   10 -0.142    9 -0.174   10 0.4848    1  3.802    6  0.370   15 -0.717
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
FIRE       8 11 1570 1722 -0.069  9.762   11 -0.171   11 -0.156   15 -0.567   11 0.4771    8  3.691   12 -0.530   13 -0.603
MERCURY    6 13 1590 1656  0.099 10.555   12 -0.278   12 -0.292    8 -0.146   12 0.4670   11  3.649   11 -0.297    8  0.005
SKY        6 12 1543 1594 -0.003  9.393   13 -0.294   13 -0.300   10 -0.190   13 0.4641    7  3.701   10 -0.112   11 -0.268
STORM      4 15 1517 1634 -0.142  9.206   14 -0.647   14 -0.669   13 -0.480   14 0.4237   12  3.619   14 -0.762    9 -0.197
SUN        4 15 1506 1646 -0.215  8.640   15 -0.716   15 -0.719   14 -0.540   15 0.4198   13  3.607   15 -0.875   10 -0.205

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      14  4 1634 1430  0.125  9.098    1  0.601    1  0.587    1  0.786    1 0.5696    9  3.682    1  0.782    2  0.789
ACES      13  5 1616 1542  0.085  9.260    2  0.487    2  0.489    4  0.319    2 0.5576    4  3.742    3  0.585    7  0.053
VALKYRIES 12  7 1579 1490  0.169 10.269    4  0.376    4  0.362    3  0.427    4 0.5399   14  3.565    9 -0.085    1  0.940
WINGS     11  7 1603 1542  0.169  9.851    5  0.318    5  0.311    5  0.309    5 0.5383    5  3.705    4  0.405    5  0.214
SPARKS     8  9 1511 1586 -0.046  8.631    9 -0.098    9 -0.069   12 -0.296    8 0.4954    3  3.766    8  0.082   14 -0.674
FIRE       8 11 1570 1722 -0.069  9.762   11 -0.171   11 -0.156   15 -0.567   11 0.4771    8  3.691   12 -0.530   13 -0.603
MERCURY    6 13 1590 1656  0.099 10.555   12 -0.278   12 -0.292    8 -0.146   12 0.4670   11  3.649   11 -0.297    8  0.005
STORM      4 15 1517 1634 -0.142  9.206   14 -0.647   14 -0.669   13 -0.480   14 0.4237   12  3.619   14 -0.762    9 -0.197

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     12  6 1588 1488  0.214 10.034    3  0.463    3  0.463    2  0.477    3 0.5522   10  3.664    5  0.393    3  0.561
LIBERTY   12  7 1689 1594 -0.167  8.065    6  0.110    6  0.103    6  0.176    6 0.5190    6  3.703    7  0.264    6  0.087
FEVER     10  8 1674 1623 -0.016  8.752    7  0.078    7  0.081    7  0.162    7 0.5109    2  3.801    2  0.703   12 -0.379
MYSTICS    8  9 1368 1429 -0.039  8.659    8 -0.089    8 -0.055   11 -0.225    9 0.4882   15  3.565   13 -0.738    4  0.289
TEMPO      9  9 1645 1657 -0.200  7.864   10 -0.140   10 -0.142    9 -0.174   10 0.4848    1  3.802    6  0.370   15 -0.717
SKY        6 12 1543 1594 -0.003  9.393   13 -0.294   13 -0.300   10 -0.190   13 0.4641    7  3.701   10 -0.112   11 -0.268
SUN        4 15 1506 1646 -0.215  8.640   15 -0.716   15 -0.719   14 -0.540   15 0.4198   13  3.607   15 -0.875   10 -0.205

DIVISION            W  L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 76 71 0.517    1  0.063
EASTERN CONFERENCE 61 66 0.480    2 -0.071

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.333 points in main ratings (0.226 for semineutral)
     0.033 points in improved RPI (0.023 for semineutral)
Average of 2.15 points per score

Predict score:








Team Strength vs. Time Plot:






posted: Sat Jun 27 05:30:10 2026
games through: Fri Jun 26 2026

Back to Dolphin rankings main page.