diff --git a/solr/CHANGES.txt b/solr/CHANGES.txt
index 56017912010..5286ab659d6 100644
--- a/solr/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/solr/CHANGES.txt
@@ -76,6 +76,12 @@ Bug Fixes
 * SOLR-9161: Change SolrPluginUtils.invokeSetters implementation to accommodate setter variants.
   (Christine Poerschke, Steve Rowe, Uwe Schindler)
 
+Other Changes
+----------------------
+
+* SOLR-9195: Remove unnecessary allocation and null check in UpdateRequestProcessorChain's
+  getReqProcessors method. (Christine Poerschke)
+
 ==================  6.1.0 ==================
 
 Consult the LUCENE_CHANGES.txt file for additional, low level, changes in this release.
diff --git a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/update/processor/UpdateRequestProcessorChain.java b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/update/processor/UpdateRequestProcessorChain.java
index 5efcb95e8ef..bd23b4bb5d7 100644
--- a/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/update/processor/UpdateRequestProcessorChain.java
+++ b/solr/core/src/java/org/apache/solr/update/processor/UpdateRequestProcessorChain.java
@@ -265,17 +265,14 @@ public final class UpdateRequestProcessorChain implements PluginInfoInitialized
   static List<UpdateRequestProcessorFactory> getReqProcessors(String processor, SolrCore core) {
     if (processor == null) return Collections.EMPTY_LIST;
     List<UpdateRequestProcessorFactory> result = new ArrayList<>();
-    if (processor != null) {
-      List<String> names = StrUtils.splitSmart(processor, ',');
-      List<UpdateRequestProcessorFactory> l = new ArrayList<>(names.size());
-      for (String s : names) {
-        s = s.trim();
-        if (s.isEmpty()) continue;
-        UpdateRequestProcessorFactory p = core.getUpdateProcessors().get(s);
-        if (p == null)
-          throw new SolrException(SolrException.ErrorCode.BAD_REQUEST, "No such processor " + s);
-        result.add(p);
-      }
+    List<String> names = StrUtils.splitSmart(processor, ',');
+    for (String s : names) {
+      s = s.trim();
+      if (s.isEmpty()) continue;
+      UpdateRequestProcessorFactory p = core.getUpdateProcessors().get(s);
+      if (p == null)
+        throw new SolrException(SolrException.ErrorCode.BAD_REQUEST, "No such processor " + s);
+      result.add(p);
     }
     return result;
   }