BASKETBALL

Ducks add three to basketball staff — Oregon added Mike Mennenga, Robert McCullum and Allen Morill to its men’s basketball staff, the school announced Monday night. Mennenga was most recently an assistant with Canisius in Buffalo, New York. McCullum, who will be the assistant director of operations, is a former head coach with Western Michigan and South Florida. And Morill, the new assitant conditioning coach, was most recently director of player development at North Texas. Combined with Altman, current assistant coaches Tony Stubblefield and Kevin McKenna, and director of operations Josh Jamieson, the Ducks will boast a collective 150 seasons of basketball knowledge on their bench.

BASEBALL

MLB working to clarify home plate collision rule — The MLB the commissioner’s office and the players’ union are working to clarify the home plate collision rule so that it does not become an issue in the postseason. Club personnel worry that a playoff game could be decided when a runner clearly beaten to the plate by a throw is called safe on a disputed or unclear interpretation of the new rule. Joe Torre, baseball’s ranking executive for on-field matters, said he has discussed the matter with Tony Clark, the executive director of the players’ union, and that clarifications to the rule should be announced soon. Torre said the rule has succeeded in its primary objective — to protect catchers from injuries in collisions at home plate. In general, the rule urges runners to slide into home plate and catchers to provide runners with a lane to get there.

FOOTBALL

Jones resigns from SMU — Two games removed from signing a contract extension, June Jones resigned as SMU’s football coach on Monday, citing personal issues. Defensive coordinator Tom Mason will serve as head coach for the rest of the season. “It was a very difficult decision for me to make, as you can imagine,” Jones said in a statement. “I have devoted my life for the last 50 years to playing and coaching this game and it has been a great journey. This job has a lot of demands, as you know, and along with that journey comes a price that is paid. I have some personal issues I have been dealing with and I need to take a step away so I can address them at this time.” Jones, a Portland native and former Portland State star, rebuilt SMU’s program, breaking a 25-year bowl drought with four bowl appearances, winning three of those. He compiled a 36-43 record in six-plus seasons at SMU.

NCAA lifts Penn State’s postseason ban — Penn State football got out from under the most severe on-field sanctions imposed on it two years ago over the Jerry Sandusky child abuse scandal, learning Monday that the NCAA will allow it to compete in this year’s postseason and that all scholarships will return in 2015. The surprise announcement, linked to progress the school has made reforming its athletic program, moved the university a step farther away from the fallout from Sandusky, the former assistant coach convicted of sexual abuse of 10 boys, including acts at university facilities. Penn State had been halfway through a four-year postseason ban handed down during the summer of 2012. Some of the 40 scholarships the program was originally docked were restored earlier than expected a year ago. The university still must pay a $60 million fine, vacate 111 wins that came under former coach Joe Paterno, plus another victory under interim coach Tom Bradley, and the school will remain under monitoring.

CYCLING

Contador wins 16th stage at Vuelta — Alberto Contador consolidated his overall race lead in the Spanish Vuelta by powering forward on the final ascent and winning the 16th stage on Monday. The Tinkoff-Saxo rider charged past Christopher Froome with less than a kilometer to go on the mountainous 99.7-mile ride from San Martin del Rey Aurelio to La Farrapona to finish in 4 hours, 53 minutes, 36 seconds. Froome finished second, 14 seconds behind, ahead of Alessandro di Marchi, who was 50 seconds behind. Alejandro Valverde lagged on the final ascent and finished fourth, 55 seconds behind, clinging on to third place overall by three seconds.

SOCCER

FIFA proposes 2 kickoff dates for 2022 World Cup — FIFA has offered January and November in 2022 as alternative kickoff dates for the World Cup in Qatar. FIFA said it presented the two options Monday when its consultation group first met to seek ways to avoid playing in the desert heat of June-July. FIFA’s executive committee should confirm the 2022 World Cup dates at its meeting in March in Zurich. However, the January-February tournament option probably could not happen if the 2022 Winter Olympics are scheduled in the traditional February slot. IOC president Thomas Bach has already said FIFA President Sepp Blatter assured him the two events would not clash. Blatter has repeatedly said the World Cup cannot be played in the Qatari summer, even though the organizing committee has stood by its pledge to build air-cooled stadiums and play in summer.

— From staff and wire reports