The Pac-12 Conference’s best-kept secret was revealed on Thursday mid-morning when it was announced that George Kliavkoff is the new commissioner hire.

Google had to love it.

A search for “Kliavkoff” turned up that he is president of Entertainment and Sports at MGM Grand Resorts. He lives in Las Vegas. I presume this means the headquarters and network may one day move to The Strip. No problem there.

Twitter had to love it, too.

In the last week Kliavkoff’s account had been active promoting that Justin Bieber’s tour making a Las Vegas appearance in 2022 and Dave Chappelle’s upcoming shows in July at MGM Grand. Also, Kliavkoff tweeted that the Aces of Comedy are back at The Mirage. As the news of his hire leaked, Kliavkoff spent some time on Thursday morning following media accounts of those who cover the conference. No problem there, either.

LinkedIn had to love the hire, too.

A year here. Two years there. Kliavkoff worked at HULU and apparently made the platform a pile of money. He’s also spent time as an executive with MLB Advanced Media and was Chief Digital Officer for NBC Universal Cable and a Board Member at Comcast Ventures. He knows brand, promotion and entertainment. No problem there, either.

But you know who isn’t going to love this hire?

Anyone who wanted the commissioner to be deeply connected with the 12 member campuses. Also, anyone who wanted the new commissioner to have an unmistakable football flavor. The presidents and chancellors flew right over those landmarks and landed on a candidate who has experience leading some big-time entertainment properties.

The Pac-12 needed to hire the anti-Larry Scott.

So how is the new guy different?

That’s the question to ask. Because both are from the corporate world. Neither had boots-on-the-ground college campus experience. At first glance, it feels like another we’re-smarter-than-the-rest-of-the-college world hire by the presidents who run the Pac-12 campuses.

As in, they think they had the right formula with Scott, but that his elitist personality just got in the way.

Kliavkoff knows the media-rights and entertainment world. He’s worked in it for a while. He’s being fashioned as the “prototype” of college commissioners of the future. The Pac-12 was sold by the search firm on the notion that if it didn’t hire him the conference might find itself competing against him someday.

Said University of Oregon president Michael Schill: “What drew us to George was his ability to see where the hockey puck was going to go.”

Kliavkoff also needs to prove himself to be a strong leader and communicator. He needs to spend time on the college campuses, listening mostly at first. It became an annoyance in Pullman, Washington, for example, that the old commissioner would fly in for a few hours and then jet away, refusing to spend the night.

The new hire also needs to lean hard into the football business of the conference. The conference coaches need a strong liaison and connection to the Pac-12 headquarters. They’ve been operating like some kind of faraway outpost for a decade.

If deputy commissioner Merton Hanks is staying on, maybe he’s the glue here. But I’m looking for Kliavkoff to show some healthy awareness and mind the football gap while he’s busy trying to cut the media deals.

The presidents and chancellors veered away from interviews with some traditional candidates. One source close to the hiring process said the conference did not focus on Ohio State athletic director Gene Smith, who bowed out early anyway. Another source said sitting Alabama athletic director Greg Byrne — who also removed himself from consideration — wasn’t contacted for an interview either. (Arizona State president Michael Crow, I’m told by a source, essentially locked Byrne out.)

Smith should have been pursued harder, especially after he said he was out. Byrne, who worked at Arizona as AD and held posts at two other Pac-12 universities, should have been interviewed if only to hear what he’s learned in the SEC. Even if the conference wanted a new-world media-focused hire, it should have talked with some of the best still succeeding at the highest levels in the old world.

I get what conference leadership sees in Kliavkoff. He has experience with streaming platforms, entertainment entities and digital rights. The college athletics world is undergoing a massive shift. But the hope here is that he doesn’t just navigate the business deals, but also pulls this conference together, one AD at a time.

The Pac-12 needs unification.

That’s born of rolling up the sleeves and showing real leadership.

Scott was divisive and aloof. It played poorly. Kliavkoff must be a correction from that. Think: engaging and reflective. Basically, the new guy needs to be a leader who can unite a dozen diverse members while making the conference a pile of money through negotiation of media rights.

None of us should bash the hire simply because we had to turn to Google to understand who George Kliavkoff was and where he’d worked. The best things aren’t always known entities. The sports world can be unforgiving and insular in that way. Kliavkoff has a chance to be the person who led the Pac-12 out of a dark period and into a big future. As one friend who examined Kliavkoff’s long resume on LinkedIn told me, “unpack and stay awhile.”