Academic with love fetish? Ignore it (2-7)

'academic with love fetish? ignore it' is the definition.
I can't judge whether this defines the answer.

'academic with love fetish? ignore it' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'academic' could be 'don' (type of academic - especially at Oxbridge) and 'don' is found within the answer.
'love' could be 'o' (love means zero in tennis) and 'o' is found within the answer.
'it' could be 'thing' and 'thing' is found in the answer.
This accounts for all the letters.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?