Wisconsin basketball 2025 off-season roster, House settlement cap tracker

New roster limits will change how Wisconsin basketball assembles its roster

On Monday morning, Judge Claudia Ann Wilken will preside over a hearing in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. Bored with the legal jargon yet?

The matter before the court will be the pending approval of what has been commonly called “the House settlement.”

Here’s the long and short:

• Former and current college athletes sued the NCAA, arguing they had been illegally denied opportunities to earn income under previous and existing “amateurism” rules.

• The NCAA, conferences, and schools agreed with the athletes to settle the suit, pay damages, and institute other sweeping changes to NCAA rules.

• Judge Wilken must approve the settlement. She may approve, deny, or opt not to rule on the matter on Monday.

If Judge Wilken approves the House settlement, it will affect far more than name-image-and-likeness payments. Among the most consequential changes would be the new roster limits proposed in the settlement. The roster limits would replace the currently existing scholarship limits in NCAA-sanctioned sports.

For today’s subject, let’s look at men’s basketball. Currently, teams are limited to 13 scholarships but can have more than 13 players on the roster if those 14th, 15th, etc. players are non-scholarship athletes (walk-ons).

Under the proposed House settlement, the 13 scholarship limit would be eliminated, but it would be replaced by a hard cap of 15 players on a men’s basketball roster. Effectively, it shrinks the maximum players you can have on a roster but allows programs to have two more scholarships available to award.

So, what does this mean for Wisconsin basketball? Even I have had a bit of a challenge following what it all means. With more than a handful of graduating seniors, portal departures, portal arrivals, and incoming freshman, let’s make this a bit easier for us to follow what Badgers head coach Greg Gard is up to.

This story will be updated as legal and roster developments arise.

Wisconsin Basketball 2025-26 Roster Construction

First, to learn where we are going, let’s take stock of where we came from.