Wisconsin head coach Luke Fickell is shown during spring football practice Wednesday, April 23, 2025 in Madison, Wisconsin Mark Hoffman/Milwaukee Journal Sentinel / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

Wisconsin Badgers football roster might not be capped at 105 players after all under new rule proposal

Originally posted on Wisconsin Badgers on SI
By Lorin Cox | Last updated May 8, 2025 6:14 AM ET

The Wisconsin Badgers have been trying to navigate the uncertainty surrounding the future rules of college football.

One more key aspect of those rules appears to be set to change.

Luke Fickell and every other coach is awaiting the results of the NCAA settlement with the U.S. House of Representatives that will set up rules for revenue sharing with players.

Within that settlement was a proposal to cap the size of football rosters at 105 players. Now, the NCAA is revising that rule, at least temporarily.

ESPN's Dan Murphy reports that under a new proposal, teams will be allowed to keep players that they would have had to cut for the roster limit, at least for this year.

The NCAA and conferences are revising their proposed roster limits in a court filing tonight.

School’s will be allowed (but not required) to keep players who otherwise would have been cut due to the House settlement. Those player will not count toward the team’s roster number.
— Dan Murphy (@DanMurphyESPN) May 7, 2025

Players on that list that would have been cut would then no longer count toward roster limits for the remainder of their college career.

They will have a special exemption and be grandfathered in to the new rules, which would presumably go into effect more in earnest in 2026.

The whole thing is complicated and confusing, but the bigger point for the Badgers is that they won't have to make any difficult decisions to trim their roster down.

In a filing tonight, Judge Claudia Wilken has allowed the objectors to file responses to the NCAA and power conferences’ revision by May 13. The plaintiffs and the NCAA can then respond by May 16.

The House case decision will likely drag on at least another week. https://t.co/Pp00u3wy7f
— Ross Dellenger (@RossDellenger) May 8, 2025

The coaching staff was left trying to figure out who they should offer for the fall and who they should pursue in the transfer portal based on the number of spots left, but now they can go all-out.

The same is true for every other school, though, so the competition doesn't get any easier.

All of this is still tentative and pending approval from the judge in this case, so it's possible the rules could completely change again next week.

It's a weird time in college football, and everyone's trying to figure it all out on the fly.