""""""""The trade off with NURBS surfaces is that you can create a nearly limitless number of polygons that conform to the desired surface with a high degree of accuracy""""""""""

NURBS are not polygons (Only on screen).. A NURBS surface is a mathematically difined surface, not polygons created from that.. A "MESH" is usually reserved for polygones... Usually, you wouldnt term anything in NURBS a mesh. But you can "mesh" your NURBS model, which would be converting it to some number of polygons, that try to conform to the pure NURBS surface.