Professional players shun key university officials (8)

'university officials' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both people as well as being plural nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?

'professional players shun key' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'professional' could be 'pro' (abbreviation) and 'pro' is present in the answer.
'key' could be 'c' (musical key) and 'c' is found in the answer.
The remaining letters 'tors' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This may be the basis of the clue (or it may be nonsense).

Can you help me to learn more?