Cleveland State started the preseason off by playing games in Barcelona, Spain. It was also announced that Cleveland State will once again be participating in the ESPNU Bracketbuster games. Cleveland State also made several changes to the schedule. Cleveland State added Syracuse to the schedule, along with moving the former season opening game against John Carroll to November 10, 2008, from November 14, 2008 and making it the only exhibition game of the year. Next they moved the Oakland game originally schedule for December 16, 2008, to November 15, 2008, where it will be the season opener. They also moved the site of the three game CBE Classic from Ft. Myers, Florida (Florida Gulf Coast), to Miami, Florida (Florida International). That meant that Cleveland State will now play Florida Inte