“We don’t want those kinds of cost-benefit analyses going on.”

Dennis Dodd drops a couple of new Tatgate items on us.

First, “Ohio State officials were aware Jim Tressel had forwarded sensitive emails to quarterback Terrelle Pryor’s mentor in Jeanette, Pa. during an initial March 8 press conference, a source close to the situation told CBSSports.com on Thursday.”

Second,

… CBSSports.com learned that Ohio State did not lobby for the six suspended players to play in the Sugar Bowl before beginning their suspensions in 2011 beyond a simple “request” to the NCAA. The student-athlete reinstatement principle that allowed those players to participate against Arkansas has its roots in an obscure 7-year-old guideline approved by the Division I Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet in 2004.

“We just self-reported and made the request,” the source said.

The “obscure guideline” has been summarized by the NCAA as follows:

… This policy was developed and implemented by the Division I membership, specifically the Division I Committee on Student-Athlete Reinstatement and approved by the Division I Academics/Eligibility/Compliance Cabinet, in 2004. It allows for suspending a reinstatement condition in specific instances involving NCAA championships or bowl games.  It recognizes the unique opportunity these events provide at the end of a season, and they are evaluated differently from a withholding perspective for student-athlete reinstatement. In the Ohio State situation, the facts are consistent with the established policy.

We now see Greg McGarity’s mistake with regard to the Green suspension.  Georgia would have been better served stalling the NCAA’s investigation until season’s end, when Green’s fate could have been determined through the filter of postseason play.  That’s some incentive to cooperate.

I’d get angrier about this, except that it’s what we’ve come to expect.

Which is why, once again, Mark Emmert proves his cluelessness every time he opens his mouth.  The NCAA’s biggest problem isn’t a threat to integrity.  It’s that we’re losing our sense of shock.