At long last, the College Football Playoff era dawns. Death to the BCS and in with the four-team bracket. As the season prepares to get underway, who's poised to earn a playoff bid in the new format's inaugural season? And who will survive that field to claim the national title.

SI's college football experts offer their playoff picks as well as their selections for the rest of the selection committee bowl games (the Orange, Fiesta, Cotton and Peach bowls this year).

As a reminder, the playoff bids go to the selection committee's top four teams, regardless of conference, and the committee will place teams into the other four bowl games based on the following rules: The Orange Bowl must match the ACC's top non-playoff team against the No. 2 team from the Big Ten or SEC or Notre Dame, and the top-ranked champion from the Group of Five conferences must be selected to one of the bowls.

For all of SI's college football experts' preseason predictions, check out the 2014 college football Crystal Ball and for complete preseason coverage of the 2014 season, visit our hub page.

STAFF: 2014 preseason Crystal Ball: SI's picks for the playoff, Heisman, more

Andy Staples

Orange Bowl: Clemson vs. Wisconsin

Fiesta Bowl: East Carolina vs. Oregon

Cotton Bowl: Oklahoma vs. Georgia

Peach Bowl: South Carolina vs. Baylor

Martin Rickman

Want more predictions? Get SI's picks for the Heisman, flop team and more.