In basketball, a steal is the act of legally gaining possession of the ball by a defensive player who causes the opponent to turn the ball over.
[1] The top 25 highest steals totals in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) Division I women's basketball history are listed below.
While the NCAA's current three-division format has been in place since the 1973–74 season, the organization did not sponsor women's sports until the 1981–82 school year; before that time, women's college sports were governed by the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women (AIAW).
Steals are a relatively new statistic in college basketball, having only become an official statistic in NCAA women's basketball beginning with the 1987–88 season.