There are plenty of writers who do this. Mary Paoletti (sp?) of CSN-NE talks up UConn, Albert Breer of NFL-Network openly bends over anything OSU, Greg Bedard from the Boston Globe tweets on Rutgers sports, Mike Silver of Yahoo spouts off on Cal athletics (and I mean ALL Cal sports) all the time...
I don't blame someone for being proud of their alma matter. Besides, Dez is mainly a football writer, correct? Does he do this with Syracuse football? I haven't seen it. I don't see it as such a big conflict of interest.