Academic provides the odd article about love (11)
I believe the answer is:
theoretical
'academic' is the definition.
('theoretical' can be similar in meaning to 'academic')
'the odd article about love' is the wordplay.
'odd' indicates anagramming the letters.
'about' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'love' becomes 'o' (In tennis, 'love' means 'zero').
'article' with letters rearranged gives 'retical'.
'retical' put after 'o' is 'oretical'.
'the'+'oretical'='THEORETICAL'
'provides' is the link.
(Other definitions for theoretical that I've seen before include "concerned with supposition" , "Cheat toiler (anag) - speculative" , "Academic" , "Not practical; speculative" , "Hypothetical" .)