The four top seeds all went down to opponents with superior DL and OL line play, which had little if anything to do with how recently they were on the field.

Ohio St simply manhandled Oregon in the trenches. PSU over the Broncos was even more of a mismatch. ND and Georgia were better matched, but it seemed like especially in the 2nd half, the Irish were a step ahead. The ASU/UT game was probably the closest matchup at the line of scrimmage, and (surprise!) turned out to be the closest on the scoreboard.

Now, how the teams with less dominant lines became the top seeds is a different question. I think it was a fluky circumstance that kept tOSU out of their conference champ game, as they clearly look like the class of their conference at this point.

But, the determining factors in this round of the playoff where the top four seeds all went down is not a matter of rest versus rust. It is ALWAYS better to advance without even having to take the field.