The ongoing saga of the House Settlement and the NCAA has allowed coaches time to determine different strategies based on how that court case all worked out. In December, Luke Fickell talked about what he would do with roster limits. He decided then he would stick with 85 scholarship players with the option of preferred walk-ons, much like Wisconsin currently does.
Let's back up a little. Friday night, Judge Claudia Wilken approved the house settlement v. the NCAA settlement. The judgment was that colleges could now pay athletes directly. There are a lot of details that go into all of this, and the goal is that it provides more guidance and structure to paying college athletes. It also determined that football programs could have up to 105 scholarship players.
Wisconsin's Luke Fickell said in December Wisconson would stick with 85 scholarship players
Back in December, Dillon Graff of BadgerNotes.com posted an article about how Wisconsin planned to handle the house settlement if it were to come to pass. Fickell, in the article, talked a lot about staying at 85, having flexibility, and continuing the tradition of walk-ons (that could be paid).
"By saying 85 [scholarships], you still have a lot of flexibility with the revenue sharing, so it’ll be interesting to see how things work...But I think that the idea of sticking with some hard cap number of scholarships is probably where we’ll be, and it’s a good thing for us because I still think it allows you to have some of those walk-on guys that are the core and crux of your program.""Luke Fickell
There's a chance that Fickell has changed his mind or that something in the actual document moves the needle towards a higher number for Wisconsin, but according to what he said in December, you can plan for Wisconsin to keep doing what they are doing with 85 scholarships and preferred walk-ons players to complete the roster.