The University of Maine isn’t the only institution in the Yankee Conference struggling to pay its athletic bills, which is why the nine-member Division I-AA league announced Tuesday it will unilaterally reduce the number of football scholarships it awards.

Beginning in 1991, Yankee Conference programs will drop from the current NCAA maximum of 70 scholarships to 65, thereby saving each institution an average of $60,000. Conference members include Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Villanova, Delaware, Boston University, Richmond, and Maine.

Scholarships at every I-AA school in the country may be reduced from 70 to 63 pending proposed NCAA legislation. But the Yankee Conference will make its reduction even if the legislation fails to pass at the 1991 NCAA Convention.

“The Yankee Conference has decided to take the lead in cost reduction,” said University of Maine President Dr. Dale Lick Monday, pointing out the proposal passed by an 8-1 vote of the YC’s presidents.

Villanova University President Rev. Edmund J. Dobbin, chairman of the Presidents Council of the Yankee Conference, echoed Lick in a statement released Tuesday.

“The reason for this reduction is to control the spiraling costs of collegiate athletics today,” said Dobbin. “The major costs involve tuition and board scholarships.”

Longtime University of Delaware football coach and athletic director David Nelson, commissioner of the Yankee Conference, also supported the movement toward austerity.

“This is good legislation, and we feel that this is appropriate action to take at this time with the increasing costs of intercollegiate athletics,” Nelson said.

The reduction will have little effect on Maine, which currently offers 64 football scholarships.