ATHENS — It has been said that money changes everything, and that’s certainly been the case in college football since the adaption of an unrestricted transfer policy and Name, Image and Likeness earning opportunities.

Georgia coach Kirby Smart said the quiet part out loud when asked about a growing number of injuries in the SEC sidelining players.

“I think about the teams we had in 2021 and 2022 and how physical they were and how they practiced, and we can’t even get close to that now,” Smart said. “Is it a different culture that guys don’t want to as much? I don’t know because they were definitely hungrier because there was a motivation to make it. You know, a lot of these guys, honestly, they make more than I made util I was 40. So it’s just a different day and age.”

It’s a fair point to take into consideration when discussing possible reasons for the proliferation of injuries this season.

To Smart’s point, former Georgia star and Philadelphia Eagles first-round pick Jalen Carter returned from a sprained knee (MCL) in 2022 and played a season-high 48 snaps in the Bulldogs’ classic 27-13 win over Tennessee in a game pitting two teams with No. 1-rankings.

NIL legislation allowing student-athletes to be paid had been passed the previous offseason, before players’ salaries ballooned to the extent that some programs are reportedly carrying payrolls of more than $40 and $50 million.

Smart has players like Carter on his current team, like All-American safety KJ Bolden, who returned to action for the 27-8 win over Florida on Saturday after missing the previous game against Auburn with a lower leg injury.

“Really was proud of him, he didn’t have to play in the game — he wanted to play in the game,” Smart said after the win over the Gators. “This day and age, you’ve got guys that they might think twice about playing. I think he is a warrior, he is a competitor. He’s everything you want on your team.”

To be clear, playing hurt and playing injured are two different things, but the line could easily get blurred when a player is making a comfortable amount of money or is overly conscientious about protecting his future earnings potential.

Smart said he’s talked to several coaches about it and can only speculate at the moment, but “everybody’s practicing less, but everybody’s getting injured more, and it dos’t make sense, it doesn’t add up.”

Smart added at his Monday press conference that roster restrictions that came as a result of the House vs. NCAA settlement in June of 2025 might also play a role.

“I think the amount of work you do gets poured on less people,” Smart said, “and it can cause injuries to go up.”

Oklahoma coach Brent Venables suggested the same thing last Wednesday on the SEC coaches teleconference, saying, “we don’t have that same depth for practicing and training.”

Tennessee coach Josh Heupel pointed to the abundance of talent in the league colliding each week is likely taking a toll.

“This league, the speed, the power the athleticism the you’re facing, the type of contact you get play-in , play out, every week inside of this league,” Heupel said on the teleconference, “I think it’s just the quality of athletes the type of contact that you encounter every play inside of this league. … the quality of players has continued to increase across the board.”

And as Alabama coach Kalen DeBoer noted, many of those front-line players are on the field all four quarters without much substitution because of the parity in the SEC.

“Every team is going to go through (attrition), you’re playing very physical football teams at a high level,” DeBoer said, “(and) a lot of times playing for four full quarters with the competitiveness that happens in the SEC.”

South Carolina coach Shane Beamer echoed those thoughts and added another twist this season with players getting less recovery time.

“Every single Saturday in this league is a war, mentally and physically,” Beamer said. “In playing in the SEC, there’s going to be a lot of attrition just because of the physicality of the game, week after week after week after week.

“And there’s only one bye week this year, that’s a big factor. Last year you had two bye weeks.”

It’s likely a combination of all of those things, but Missouri coach Eli Drinkwitz explained building the ideal team-first culture has become harder than ever.

“I think players, coaches, everybody is getting bombarded by what are the possibilities at the end of the year, so it’s hard to have elite focus, and elite concentration when there’s the uncertainty of what’s next,” Drinkwitz said of the tampering that’s become commonplace in college football

“And that’s for everybody on your team, because every player is a free agent, because there isn’t long-term deals, so it’s just a new nature of what college football has become.”