Missy Franklin appears to be committed to swimming in college. Franklin has said on numerous occasions that she will try and swim as an amateur for the next few years, forgoing millions of dollars in endorsements for the chance to swim on a collegiate team.
Franklin might turn pro sometime in college to prepare herself for the next Olympics, but she will apparently not start out as a pro.
Franklin made her first recruiting trip to Cal the first week of September, and all indications are that she really enjoyed it.
Franklin has recruiting trips scheduled at Georgia and Texas in October, and perhaps will also visit Southern California. As for her thoughts on Cal, whose coach Teri McKeever was the U.S. Olympic women's swim coach: "It was amaaazing!"
Franklin has a lot of connections with Cal. Her Olympic coach Teri McKeever is the head coach at Cal. Many of her Olympic teammates either swim with the Bears as amateur athletes (like Caitlin Leverenz and Rachel Bootsma) or swim on the club team at California (like Dana Vollmer and Natalie Coughlin). You have to imagine the Bears will remain a huge factor in her recruitment.
Talk about the Franklin recruiting trip with Cal fans by heading on over to the California Golden Blogs.