I just went through this last year with my son. The coaches will ask for a verbal but the student/athlete absolutely cannot sign anything (Even if they are an early enrollee). One coach who offered my son a scholarship basically demanded his verbal intent and stated that they were recruiting 5 other kids at his position and if he didn't give the verbal that they would take the first 2 kids who did. My son walked away from that offer. Point being that nothing and I mean nothing is legally binding until the NLI is signed in February or after FOR EITHER PARTY. So if the school moves on then they move on. Now, generally the school will honor the offer if the offer is in writing. My son received numerous offers in writing but obviously nothing legally binding until he signed his NLI. The school and the coach generally will not want the possible negative publicity of revoking an offer to a student/athlete without cause but that's not to say it couldn't happen.

That is good

So if a kid has signed with a school after his senior season, then the coach gets fired, what happens? Are the new coaches allowed to pull that scholarship or is the kid allowed to leave that school without penalty? I've seen this happen a few times over the years and haven't really had an answer.

Coaches can and will pull the offer up until the NLI is signed. Happens all the time. Petrino did it to a kid when he came back to Louisville. It was all over the news and this site. Unfortunately kids are nothing more than a piece of equipment for a coach and the NCAA only looks out for the coaches. They can leave whenever they want with no penelty. Athletes have to stay put or sit out. It's a Dirty business plain and simple.

A player needs to select the school that's the best fit and not the staff. Very hard to do since most HS seniors don't have a clue what they want to study.

It is a business.and if a program is bad and the coach gets fired you cannot be him for wanting his own players to help him keep his job