As Boise State University joins a higher-profile conference under the cloud of alleged NCAA violations and the strain of a growing budget gap between the school and the upper echelon of Division I, the Broncos will move forward without the man who got them there — fired Athletic Director Gene Bleymaier.

Whoever takes the helm will be replacing the man who installed the first blue turf, completed two major Bronco Stadium expansions, led the school through three conference changes and hired the football coaches who have produced seven Top 25 seasons and two Fiesta Bowl championships in the past decade. Boise State teams won six conference championships in 2010-11.

The Broncos’ athletic department operated on a $2 million budget when Bleymaier was hired in 1982 — “Which I thought was a heck of a lot of money,” he said Wednesday.

The Broncos will enter their first athletic year without him with a budget of $30.9 million.

Sustaining that growth amid a sagging economy and in a new conference, the Mountain West, will be the greatest challenge for Bleymaier’s successor.

“They need to keep it going and find someone who can build a basketball program and get other sports up to the level of football,” said Paul J. Schneider, the longtime former Voice of the Broncos. “They need someone who is a fundraiser and has vision. What they need is a young Gene Bleymaier.”

Bleymaier, whose dismissal was announced Wednesday, will stay on through Sept. 8. An interim athletic director will be named and a national search held for a replacement.

“I did not expect this,” Bleymaier said, clearly stunned. “Obviously, I’m disappointed in the president’s decision.”

The new athletic director will face immediate financial pressure — the Broncos are in the process of building a track and field complex at Dona Larsen Park in East Boise, adding a football facility in the north end zone of Bronco Stadium and trying to expand stadium seating.

“Those are some big, big shoes to fill,” said Matt Bauscher, a former Boise State men’s basketball player who grew up in Caldwell. “He brought the program — the whole Boise State athletic program, every sport — he brought it up to a very high standard.”

Football coach Chris Petersen and men’s basketball coach Leon Rice were not available for comment. Each issued a statement thanking Bleymaier for their opportunities but didn’t address what the firing means for the future of their programs.

Petersen will speak to the media Saturday.

Longtime supporter Rich Fedrizzi said boosters are “dismayed” by the firing and worried about the football program’s continuity.

“I hope we can keep it together,” Fedrizzi said. “I hope people don’t get disgruntled, including the coaching staff.”

Bleymaier, 57, was fired last week because Boise State President Bob Kustra determined he needed a new leader to help the Broncos overcome the stain of the school’s first NCAA major-infractions case.

The move ends Bleymaier’s 29-year tenure.

“It’s a great time to be coming into this program,” Bleymaier said. “(The challenge) is always going to be financing it. And trying to keep growing. We’ve had a philosophy here that I’ve espoused to our coaches that, hey, we can’t go from A to Z in one year but I’ll do everything in my power … to go from A to B and from B to C.

“And the coaches have appreciated that. And it’s worked for us.”

The new athletic director also will face NCAA probation and other as-yet-unannounced penalties.

Boise State endured a 13-hour hearing in front of the Committee on Infractions on June 10 and expects a decision within the next 30 days, Bleymaier said. The school reported a major violation in women’s tennis after acknowledging dozens of minor violations in other sports, including impermissible housing, transportation and meals benefits for incoming football recruits.

Boise State also was charged with a lack of institutional control.

The school already has self-imposed penalties and Bleymaier said Wednesday he expects them to be sufficient. The Committee on Infractions makes its determinations after each hearing, so Bleymaier’s ouster isn’t likely to affect its ruling.

“I am very hopeful that those sanctions will be adequate,” Bleymaier said. “We believe that they will be. We have no reason to think otherwise.”

Kustra, who announced the firing six days after he told Bleymaier, wasn’t available for comment. In a prepared statement, he cited the NCAA violations as the motive for change.

He previously had moved the compliance department into the president’s office.

“I did not come to this decision lightly,” Kustra said. “After a careful management review and discussions about the future of the program, I determined that new leadership will be needed as we commit ourselves to the highest level of attention and enforcement of NCAA standards, and also continue to move Boise State athletics to the next level of success.”

Bleymaier emphasized three core values within his department — compliance, academics and student-athlete welfare. He said he doesn’t know of anything he could have done to prevent the NCAA infractions.

“We were monitoring the program and we had a number of safeguards in place, but there were some areas that slipped through,” he said.

Bleymaier and his department also were the targets of a gender-discrimination lawsuit by a former assistant track coach. It was settled this summer. The coach, Amy Christoffersen, has been paid at least $40,000.

Kustra told Bleymaier that his decision was based on the “confidence level he believes he needs … in the university’s compliance operation during an NCAA probationary period,” Bleymaier said in a written response to the firing.

The NCAA case intensified in October 2010, when the tennis violation occurred. “It’s been very trying because it took a lot of time and we spent a lot of time and addressed the issues promptly,” Bleymaier said, “with candor, cooperation and commitment. ... We’ve learned a lot, and I think we’re a much better program as a result of it.”

In fact, Bleymaier expected to stay at Boise State through the end of his career. He has nearly two years left on a contract that pays him $266,115 per year.

He said he doesn’t know what his next step will be.

“I haven’t had a chance to really think about that. I had planned on working a long time into the future and so I …” Bleymaier said, pausing to collect himself. “That’s something that I need to ponder and figure out where I go from here.”

The athletic department faces uncertainties, too, with new leadership on the way.

But don’t expect the school to remove Bleymaier’s signature blue turf.

“No way would we ever do anything like that,” Kustra said in summer 2010.

Nick Jezierny contributed to this report.Chadd Cripe: 377-6398