If there was a common throughline across women’s sports in 2025, it was that all of the teams and even the individuals we thought were juggernauts saw their seasons end in disappointment. In August, I declared the Minnesota Lynx were inevitable. They didn’t even make it to the WNBA Finals. The Kansas City Current finished the NWSL regular season with 65 points, 21 clear of the second-place Washington Spirit. Those were both records, as was their +36 goal differential, tying the 2018 North Carolina Courage. The Current lost in the first round of the playoffs to the eventual champions Gotham FC. In the Champions League, three-time champions Barcelona lost in the final to Arsenal, who required come-from-behind wins in the quarterfinals and semifinals just to make it to that match. The Nebraska women’s volleyball team failed to advance to the final four after going undefeated to that point. We even saw a version of this on the LPGA Tour. We had 29 different winners on the LPGA Tour in 2025, but world number two Nelly Korda, who won seven times in 2024, was not one of them. World Number One Jeeno Thitikul won three times on tour en route to winning Rolex Player of the Year, but she was shut out in the majors yet again.

It would be easy to dismiss all of this as a coincidence. After all, the entire point of having playoffs is that any team can lose a match or a series when you least expect it. If we wanted to just award the title to the team that had the best regular season, all of these leagues would be like the WSL and just wouldn’t have playoffs. That being said, we have seen a few commonalities across leagues.

If there is one thing we could point to for why these teams or players failed to deliver when it mattered the most, it is that they all faced opponents who peaked at the right time. Gotham FC was the eighth seed, but they were second in the league with a +10 goal differential and they were 7-6-3 after the midseason break. The Phoenix Mercury took a long time to gel and get everyone healthy, but they peaked against Minnesota in the playoffs before suffering injuries of their own in the finals against the Aces. Nelly and Jeeno still had very good seasons but with the LPGA Tour featuring more talent than ever, they simply ran into players who got hot at the right times.

I also suspect the increased length of these seasons leads to the best teams not peaking at the end. Both the NWSL and WNBA played more games than ever in 2025. That likely contributed to increased injuries, which in turn affected the playoffs. Gotham’s season turned around when Midge Purce returned from injury, with the Washington Spirit likewise rebounding when Trinity Rodman got healthy. It probably isn’t a coincidence that those teams met in the NWSL Final.

The Lynx were already going to go down 2-1 in their semifinal series against the Mercury, but Napheesa Collier’s injury at the end of Game 3 effectively ended any chance they had of coming back. Similarly, the Mercury benefited from Breanna Stewart going down in the first round, and they saw their season end when Satou Sabally was injured in the WNBA Finals. Unfortunately, when you have strenuous regular seasons, you make it even less likely that the best teams will be completely healthy during the playoffs.

While 2025 served as a good reminder that no team is as inevitable as it may appear during the regular season, I don’t expect this trend to continue in 2026 necessarily. It is too early to know who the favorites will be next year, but once they emerge, I expect they will do just fine. If the Lynx bring back most of their players next season, I’ll pick them to win the WNBA title and will be shocked (again) if they don’t. I’ll still expect Jeeno Thitikul and Nelly Korda to finish at the top of the Rolex Player of the Year race and for Jeeno to win her first major of many. Anything can happen in the crucible of the playoffs, and it is a testament to these leagues that there is so much talent that the top teams aren’t always safe. That being said, when teams prove themselves to be much better than the competition during the regular season, I expect that to carry through the playoffs as well.