The power four conferences are required to fund up to the roster limits for all sports due to the NCAA lawsuit agreement.
I can’t see a world where Akron can do that, remembering that Title IX still exists. 28 for men’s soccer means 28 for women’s soccer. This will greatly impact the ability to recruit against these schools. When every school was 9.9, you had a chance against big schools. Now it’s full ride in ACC, Big 10, Big 12 and SEC, which includes men’s soccer schools UCF (Big 12), Kentucky,(SEC) South Carolina (SEC) West Virginia (Big 12), and any other soccer school (Portland, James Madison, WMU, St Louis, etc) willing to invest. I guess Akron could possibly go to 12 or 15 and then cobble together depth players. I would also guess that some of the Akron players that were recruited by big conference schools prior to this, can hit the portal looking for a better financial deal.
This, coupled with MLS Next Pro deals for 15 and 16 year olds, will be quite a challenge.