HARFTORD, Conn. -- SMU senior guard Sterling Brown sat on a couch with a nylon net draped around his neck, eating chips, waiting anxiously while someone turned up the TV volume.

The Mustangs, fresh off a 71-56 win over Cincinnati in Sunday's American Athletic Conference championship game, celebrated for roughly 30 minutes before filling a room to learn their seed for a fourth NCAA tournament berth in the last 30 years.

Most of the players celebrated once they heard their school name announced on national television.

After all, the feeling of missing out on the tournament altogether was fresh, too.

But then SMU's No. 6 seed started to settle in. A few moments after Brown was just happy to feel the postseason again, discontent started to set in.

"We're just going to have to prove them wrong now," Brown said. "We're better than a six seed."

That's what the Mustangs (30-4) will be out to prove next week. They will face the winner of a play in-game between No. 11 seeds Providence (20-12) and Southern Cal (24-9) next Friday in Tulsa.

On Sunday, SMU proved why it was the top seed coming into this weekend's conference tournament.

The Mustangs never struggled in the second half against second-seeded Cincinnati (29-5), the team that finished behind SMU in the conference standings. Brown scored a game-high 18 points, while junior forward Semi Ojeleye chipped in with 14 points and senior forward Ben Moore tallied 12 points and nine rebounds.

As SMU coach Tim Jankovich predicted days before his team left for Connecticut, Sunday's performance may not have impacted seeding much because of the timing. Tip-off was roughly two hours before the nationally-televised selection show started.

By then, the chances of a strong performance impacting seeding were probably minimal.

The first-year SMU coach wasn't worried about the No. 6 slot. He was just happy his team will play on Friday and get an extra day of rest.

"I could care less what the number is," Jankovich said. "They're just like preseason rankings. They're silly numbers."

In another room at the XL Center, AAC commissioner Mike Aresco watched with other conference officials as the rest of the 68-team field nestle into spots.

Cincinnati, a team that suffered two of its five losses to SMU, also earned a No. 6 seed.

Aresco said he believed the AAC does not get as much respect as it deserves. The teams in Sunday's final received the conference's only NCAA berths.

"We'll accept what the committee's done," Aresco said. "I disagree. I think SMU should have been a higher seed."

When a teammate complained about the show's 90-minute length, Brown reminded him about what happened in 2014, when the Mustangs held a watch party at Moody Coliseum and never heard their name called. Last season, SMU went 25-5 while serving a one-year postseason ban as part of NCAA sanctions against the program.

It is what made this year's run unique.

"This is not normal," Jankovich said at the postgame news conference. "This is not just a bunch of guys that had a good year and they're going to the tournament. It runs deeper than that, at least it does for me for sure."

Despite the feelings after the seeding announcement, SMU made sure it celebrated its accomplishments.

Ojeleye hugged his mother and cradled the AAC championship trophy and the award given to the tournament's most valuable player. Later, after the stadium emptied and with his white championship hat still tilted to the side, he smiled.

After all, SMU had just won its 16th straight game and swept the AAC regular-season title and the tournament championship for the second time in three seasons. And after a one-year hiatus, the Mustangs were headed back to the NCAA tournament, even if it's with a No. 6 seed.

"At this point, I'm on top of the world," Ojeleye said. "Nothing can really get me down, to be honest."