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
FEVER     25 14 3769 3547  0.023 19.252    5  0.329    5  0.312    3  0.414    5 0.5326    1  3.829    1  1.034   10 -0.207
LYNX      31  8 3571 3248  0.015 18.793    1  0.652    1  0.653    2  0.524    1 0.5685    7  3.723    2  0.647    3  0.400
DREAM     25 13 3460 3246  0.015 18.582    4  0.357    4  0.344    4  0.386    4 0.5360    8  3.721    3  0.501    4  0.271
ACES      26 14 3616 3481  0.055 20.455    3  0.376    3  0.373    5  0.262    3 0.5404    5  3.731    4  0.421    6  0.103
LIBERTY   24 15 3541 3414 -0.028 18.808    8  0.230    8  0.216    7  0.184    8 0.5239    4  3.737    5  0.371    7 -0.002
WINGS     23 16 3463 3343  0.067 20.114    6  0.259    6  0.245    6  0.241    6 0.5263   10  3.692    6  0.226    5  0.257
SKY       15 24 3401 3502 -0.030 19.617    9 -0.259   10 -0.265    9 -0.206   10 0.4706    6  3.724    7 -0.075   12 -0.337
SPARKS    13 25 3316 3516 -0.030 19.422   12 -0.360   11 -0.352   13 -0.381   12 0.4621    3  3.756    8 -0.107   14 -0.656
TEMPO     11 27 3307 3557 -0.006 19.903   13 -0.469   13 -0.469   14 -0.490   13 0.4532    2  3.778    9 -0.114   15 -0.866
FIRE      15 23 3293 3473 -0.053 18.998   10 -0.263    9 -0.255   11 -0.319    9 0.4720    9  3.718   10 -0.215   13 -0.423
TEAM       W  L   PF   PA  SCHED  ELOSS  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING  RNK RATING
VALKYRIES 27 11 3140 2888  0.071 19.171    2  0.510    2  0.503    1  0.545    2 0.5536   15  3.515   11 -0.229    1  1.318
MERCURY   13 25 3193 3341 -0.022 19.376   11 -0.355   12 -0.357   10 -0.312   11 0.4622   11  3.669   12 -0.430    9 -0.195
MYSTICS   23 15 3151 3160  0.001 19.187    7  0.232    7  0.238    8  0.043    7 0.5255   14  3.571   13 -0.498    2  0.585
STORM      8 31 3240 3438 -0.052 19.617   15 -0.678   15 -0.711   12 -0.360   15 0.4283   12  3.661   14 -0.513   11 -0.207
SUN       10 28 2996 3303 -0.062 19.215   14 -0.561   14 -0.559   15 -0.587   14 0.4413   13  3.600   15 -1.004    8 -0.171

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      31  8 3571 3248  0.015 18.793    1  0.652    1  0.653    2  0.524    1 0.5685    7  3.723    2  0.647    3  0.400
ACES      26 14 3616 3481  0.055 20.455    3  0.376    3  0.373    5  0.262    3 0.5404    5  3.731    4  0.421    6  0.103
WINGS     23 16 3463 3343  0.067 20.114    6  0.259    6  0.245    6  0.241    6 0.5263   10  3.692    6  0.226    5  0.257
SPARKS    13 25 3316 3516 -0.030 19.422   12 -0.360   11 -0.352   13 -0.381   12 0.4621    3  3.756    8 -0.107   14 -0.656
FIRE      15 23 3293 3473 -0.053 18.998   10 -0.263    9 -0.255   11 -0.319    9 0.4720    9  3.718   10 -0.215   13 -0.423
VALKYRIES 27 11 3140 2888  0.071 19.171    2  0.510    2  0.503    1  0.545    2 0.5536   15  3.515   11 -0.229    1  1.318
MERCURY   13 25 3193 3341 -0.022 19.376   11 -0.355   12 -0.357   10 -0.312   11 0.4622   11  3.669   12 -0.430    9 -0.195
STORM      8 31 3240 3438 -0.052 19.617   15 -0.678   15 -0.711   12 -0.360   15 0.4283   12  3.661   14 -0.513   11 -0.207

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
FEVER     25 14 3769 3547  0.023 19.252    5  0.329    5  0.312    3  0.414    5 0.5326    1  3.829    1  1.034   10 -0.207
DREAM     25 13 3460 3246  0.015 18.582    4  0.357    4  0.344    4  0.386    4 0.5360    8  3.721    3  0.501    4  0.271
LIBERTY   24 15 3541 3414 -0.028 18.808    8  0.230    8  0.216    7  0.184    8 0.5239    4  3.737    5  0.371    7 -0.002
SKY       15 24 3401 3502 -0.030 19.617    9 -0.259   10 -0.265    9 -0.206   10 0.4706    6  3.724    7 -0.075   12 -0.337
TEMPO     11 27 3307 3557 -0.006 19.903   13 -0.469   13 -0.469   14 -0.490   13 0.4532    2  3.778    9 -0.114   15 -0.866
MYSTICS   23 15 3151 3160  0.001 19.187    7  0.232    7  0.238    8  0.043    7 0.5255   14  3.571   13 -0.498    2  0.585
SUN       10 28 2996 3303 -0.062 19.215   14 -0.561   14 -0.559   15 -0.587   14 0.4413   13  3.600   15 -1.004    8 -0.171

DIVISION             W   L   PCT  RNK RATING
WESTERN CONFERENCE 156 153 0.505    1  0.034
EASTERN CONFERENCE 133 136 0.494    2 -0.049

Home field advantage amounts to:
     0.338 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: Thu Aug 27 05:30:10 2026
games through: Wed Aug 26 2026

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