Possession (sports) determined by several methods, including a coin flip (American football and cricket), home team status (baseball), or by giving the teams an equal opportunity to physically take possession; this may be called a dropped-ball (association football), a ball-up (Australian rules football), a jump ball (basketball), or a face-off (hockey). In some timed sports, the team with possession may try to "run time off the clock" by keeping the ball and not attempting to score, in order to deny the opposing team possession. A shot clock speeds gameplay by requiring teams to attempt to score within a certain period of time
Running up the score coaches are notorious for running up the score to impress coaches and sportswriters who vote in the Amway Coaches Poll or AP Poll. It is a common allegation that some poll voters simply look at box scores before punching in their votes. When the Bowl Championship Series (BCS) existed in college football, the votes had a huge impact on who went to BCS games, including the national championship. Only by watching the game or game tape (or by careful box-score scrutiny) can a coach determine if a 49–21 score was caused by a fairly one-sided game or the winning team