I bounced the Pac-12′s private-equity offering off Mark Cuban.

Why not? Everyone is making the “Shark Tank” joke in response to hearing about it, right?

To summarize, the Pac-12 is in a tough spot. It needs revenue. It can’t afford to wait until 2024 when the conference’s existing media-rights deal can be re-negotiated. Commissioner Larry Scott has proposed creating a media-rights holding company and selling an equity stake in it.

The number being floated by the conference: $500 million in exchange for 10 percent.

Cuban, the 60-year old Dallas Mavericks’ owner, entrepreneur, investor and “Shark Tank” co-host, shot some quick thoughts my way. I asked him if the offering was intriguing or ridiculous. Also, if the conference’s valuation made sense to him.

Cuban shot back: “Intrigued, yes.”

Cuban also offered: “What they would value at, I don’t know. But Disney selling all the Fox Sports regionals will help determine the value.”

It’s a great point.

Because of antitrust laws Disney is required to sell off 22 Fox Regional Sports Networks as part of the asset transfer between the two media giants. The company sent out the bid book on the sale of the RSNs in October. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of this year.

Guggenheim Securities analysts, per a report, valued the networks at a combined $22.4 billion last year. But the networks include major media markets such as New York, Los Angeles and Dallas.

Fox isn’t interested in buying them back.

MLB kicked the tires, but has cooled on the notion.

Disney has had a difficult time finding a suitor willing to take the networks in a wholesale transaction. It may have to sell them off in pieces, which may ultimately drive the overall value down.

Keep an eye on the Disney sale. Private-equity firm, Apollo Global, could end up as a suitor. That eventual sale, and not dreamy thinking from the conference leadership, is going to set the value for the Pac-12 Network.

Also, keep an eye toward China.

Insiders at the Pac-12 Conference tell me that Scott has spent a few years cultivating a close relationship with Alibaba Group Executive Chairman Jack Ma. The Pac-12 has played volleyball, soccer and men’s basketball games in China. For a long time, I’ve thought Scott was angling for a job at Alibaba -- perhaps as North American chairman? -- in his post-Pac-12 life.

That may prove true. But also, Alibaba Group has emerged as an interesting potential partner for the Pac-12.

It’s familiar with the product. It won’t be fazed by the lack of subscribers (17.9 milllion). It may just see an investment in the conference as a way to move into the United States.

Still, the $5 billion valuation on the network sounds absurd.

And would a partner really be satisfied with only 10 percent stake?

I called up Adam Lewis, a reporter who covers the private-equity world for PitchBook.

“They would take a 10 percent stake, but for a much lower number, I’d think,” Lewis said. "I’ve been covering every private-equity deal that goes through the wire. I haven’t seen really anything comparable to that in terms of anyone giving them an immediate $500 million investment with little to no control over what a network that has proved to be incompetent through the first part of its history.

“If you’re going to fork over that kind of capital and put your investor’s money at risk, you would be crazy not to want some sort of control over what’s going on.”

Again, intriguing -- but not at those numbers.

Cuban is an interesting figure in all of this. He co-owns 2929 Entertainment, which founded AXS TV (a network itself). He thinks outside the box. He brings credibility, and he’s exactly the kind of private investor who could probably solve some of the Pac-12′s glaring issues.

He says private-equity firms will be intrigued, sure.

I am, too.

But I got no indication from Cuban this week that he’d actually be interested in being a minority stake holder in the Pac-12′s ongoing media-right’s headache.

I’ll let you know if that changes.