Prospect JC-Bound After Test : Football: Top USC recruit McCullough fails to qualify in ACT exam and appears en route to Pasadena City College.

USC football prospect Saladin McCullough, who was at the center of a test-score controversy last summer, scored a nonqualifying 14 recently on his American College Testing (ACT) exam.

McCullough, an all-state running back from Pasadena’s Muir High, needed a minimum 17 ACT score for NCAA eligibility.

McCullough signed a letter of intent to enroll at USC after his 1992 senior season, when he gained 2,142 yards and scored 36 touchdowns. He averaged 8.7 yards a carry.

He posted a qualifying score of about 1,200 on his Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), but unsigned letters sent to Educational Testing Service, administrators of the SAT, in Princeton, N.J., and to the Pasadena Star-News challenged the score, which was about 300 points higher than the national average.

McCullough and his uncle, Muir High teacher Michael Harrison, went through arbitration over the SAT challenge, but lost their case.

USC football people said this week that McCullough will attend Pasadena City College the next two seasons, after which he could transfer to USC.

“He’ll have to go to junior college, that’s what it looks like now,” USC offensive coordinator Mike Reilly said.

Harrison said, however, that his nephew might elect to take the ACT test again.

The ACT test is in four parts: English, math, reading and science reasoning. ACT spokesman Kelly Hayden said that of 875,603 high school seniors who took the test in 1993, about 7% scored 14 or lower.

The national average score, he said, was 20.7.