__NOTOC__ In

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular court, compete with the primary objective of shooting a basketball (approximately in diameter) through the defender's h ...

, 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. The top 25 highest steals totals in

National Collegiate Athletic Association The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges ...

(NCAA) Division I men's basketball history are listed below. The NCAA did not split into its current divisions format until August 1973. From 1906 to 1955, there were no classifications to the NCAA nor its predecessor, the Intercollegiate Athletic Association of the United States (IAAUS). Then, from 1956 to spring 1973, colleges were classified as either "NCAA University Division (Major College)" or "NCAA College Division (Small College)". Steals are a relatively new statistic in

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

, having only become an official statistic beginning with the 1985–86 season. The all-time Division I steals leader is Jacob Gilyard of Richmond. He recorded 466 steals by utilizing an extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Three schools have two different players representing them on the top 25 list. Providence, which has the second- and third-ranked players on the list, is followed by

Alabama A&M Alabama Agricultural and Mechanical University (Alabama A&M) is a public historically black land-grant university in Normal, Huntsville, Alabama. Founded in 1875, it took its present name in 1969. AAMU is a member-school of the Thurgood Mars ...

and

Maryland Maryland ( ) is a state in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. It shares borders with Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware and the Atlantic Ocean to ...

Key

Top 25 career steals leaders

Includes ties for 25th.

References

;General * ;Specific {{DEFAULTSORT:Steals, Career NCAA Division I men's basketball statistical leaders